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THE BLIGHTED 



Life of Methuselah 



H^ Roger Williams, M. D.. 



NASHVILLE, TENN.: 

NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD. 

1908. 



U8HARY or G0Ni3«E^S 
i wu OuDies H«ctiive4 

AUG JO ia08 

CLASSY A AXc. i^u. 






Copyrighted by 

H. Roger Williams, M. D., 

Mobile, Ala. 

i9oa 



THK BUOHTED UFK OF MKTHUSKIyAH. 

* 

A TREATISE 

FROM 

GENESIS v:27. 

SHOWING THE MANY OPPORTUNITIES WHICH METHUSEI.AH 

HAD FOR MAKING A CHRISTIAN RECORD, AND HOW 

BY I^ETTING THEM PASS UNNOTICED FOR 

NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE 

YEARS, HE DIED AND 

WAS I,OST. 

THE TREATISE 

IS TO 

SAINTS AND SINNERS 

AS A WARNING AGAINST NEGI^ECTING 

THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT COME TO THEM DAII,Y 

FOR DOING SOMETHING TO MAKE THE WORI,D BETTER FOR 

THEIR HAVING I,IVED IN IT, AND CI,EAR THEIR 

OWN PATHWAY TO ETERNAI. GI^ORY. 

BY 

H. ROGER WIIvUAMS, M. D., 

MOBII^E, AI«A. 



@) 



J 




H. Roger Williams. 



PREFACE. 



With earnest hope that this little book may lead 
some sinner to repent, or arouse some slothful 
Christian from the spiritual stupor into which so 
many have fallen, I send it forth to all who care 
to peruse its pages. 

What will become of it on the great ocean of 
opinions, whose thought waves, swept in billowy 
masses by the winds of controversy, lash the 
shores of Publication, and threaten to submerge 
this generation in a deluge of paper and print- 
er's ink, I know not ; but I am satisfied that **God, 
who has watched while my weary toils lasted, 
will give me a harvest for what I have done. In 

His name I send it forth/' 

The Author. 



(5) 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

PREFACE 5 

CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY 9 

CHAPTER II. 
THE I.ONG I.IPE OP METHUSEI.AH I3 

CHAPTER III. 
THE CREATION OP THE WORI.D 18 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE DIVINE PURPOSE OP CREATION 22 

CHAPTER V. 
A VISION OP ADAM 24 

CHAPTER VI. 
EVIDENCE THAT ADAM TAUGHT HIS POSTERITY 28 

CHAPTER VII, 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAINTS AND SINNERS 33 

CHAPTER VIII. 
METHUSEI*AH CONTEMPORARY WITH ADAM 36 

CHAPTER IX. 
METHUSEI^AH CONTEMPORARY WITH AI,!, WHO I,IVED BE- 
FORE THE Fl,OOD 39 

CHAPTER X. 
METHUSEI^AH'S OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSTRUCTING OTH- 
ERS 42 

CHAPTEE XI. 
METHUSKI*AH'S OPPORTUNITIES FOR FAVOR WITH GOD. . . 44 

(7) 



8 Contents. 

PAGE. 

CHAPTER XII. 
METHUSEI^AH REJECTED 47 

CHAPTER XIII. 
METHUSEIyAH I,OST 52 

CHAPTER XIV. 
REASONS FOR INVESTIGATING THE I.IFE OF METHUSEI.AH 62 

CHAPTER XV. 
OTHER REASONS FOR STUDYING THE I.IFE OF METHUSEI.AH 66 

CHAPTER XVI. 
FACTS WORTH KNOWING 70 

CHAPTER XVII. 
A PAGE IN AI^ABAMA HISTORY 75 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
METHUSEI^AH A WARNING TO SINNERS 80 

CHAPTER XIX. 
NO EXCUSE FOR REJECTING CHRIST 88 

CHAPTER XX. 
god's LENIENCY WITH MEN 93 

CHAPTER XXI. 
THE PRICE OF THE ARK 96 

CHAPTER XXII. 
METHUSELAH A WARNING TO CHRISTIANS , lOI 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST I04 

CONCLUSION 113 



THE 

BLIGHTED LIFE OF METHUSELAH. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introductory. 
The words which we use as a basis of argu- 
ment are recorded in the twenty-seventh verse of 
the fifth chapter of Genesis, and read thus : *'And 
all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and 
sixty-nine years; and he died." Statements of 
a similar nature were made in referring to many 
others of the antedeluvian patriarchs ; but in this 
particular case it ends the life history of a man 
who had lived longer upon the earth than any 
mortal of whom we have a record. Adam, Seth, 
Enos, Cainan, Jared and Noah, all lived over nine 
hundred years; (Gen. i:5-29) but Methuselah 
outstripped them all in the race for longevity; 
and, having reached his nine hundred and sixty- 
ninth anniversary, like an exhausted ocean wave 
struggling across the sea, he fell lifeless on the 

shore of Time, and the Scriptures say ''He died." 

(9) 



10 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

Now, it must be accepted as an axiom by every 
follower of Christ that the Scriptures are the 
revealed word of God, the various assumptions of 
eminent scholars to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. Every word, every expression, every dec- 
laration made in the dear old Book is pregnant 
with truths, many of which, like the hidden treas- 
ures in the mountains of earth, are discovered aft- 
er having been passed unnoticed for centuries. 

"Search the Scriptures," is the advice of the 
Saviour to those who would make their way from 
the city of Destruction to the kingdom of God. 
(John v:39.) All Scripture is by inspira- 
tion of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness : that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
oughly furnished unto all good works." — 2 Tim. 
iii:16, 17. 

Almost every historic person in the Bible bears 
an appropriate name, not alone to designate him 
from other individuals, but the name was descrip- 
tive of the character and life of its possessor. 

"Out of the ground the Lord God formed every 
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and 
brought them unto Adam to see what he would 
call them : and whatsoever Adam called every liv- 
ing creature, that was the name thereof." (Gen. 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 11 

ii:19.) "And Abraham called the name of his son 
that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, 
Isaac." (Gen. xxi:3.) ''And Rachel said with 
great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, 
and I have prevailed: and she called his name 
Naphtali.'' (Gen. xxx:8.) "And Joseph called the 
name of the first born Manasseh: for God, said 
he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my 
father's house.'' (Gen. xli:51.) Zipperah, the 
Negro wife of Moses, for despising whom Miriam 
was smitten with leprosy, and the marching army 
of Israelites was forced to halt for seven days 
(Numbers xii:15), gave birth to a son, and Moses 
named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a 
stranger in a strange land" (Ex. ii :22) ; and when 
the angel had made an explanation to Joseph of 
what had happened to his virgin wife, he said, 
(Matt. v:21), "She shall bring forth a son, and 
thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save 
his people from their sins" (23 verse). "They 
shall call his name Emmanuel, which being inter- 
preted is, God with us." 

The name of our hero is "Methuselah." It is 
from two Hebrew words, "Methu," which means 
"He dieth," and "Shalah," which means "He send- 
eth out." Now, the problem that confronts us 
is to know whether he died and was sent out of 



12 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

the world to be preserved from some approaching 
calamity, or whether he died and was sent out 
from the presence of God. Either might be in- 
ferred from his name, and the effort of our re- 
search will be to gather the rays of Scripture 
truths, and, focusing them through the lens of 
Reason, by the electrical force of the Holy Spirit, 
produce a violet X-ray of logical conclusion, that 
we may know for a certainty whether Methu- 
selah died and was sent out to enter the Paradise 
promised to the thief on the cross, or whether 
he died and was sent out to awake with Dives in 
the flames of eternal burning, where it is said, 
'There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
Imploring the Holy Spirit to aid us in the attempt 
to render transparent these hitherto opaque walls, 
and trusting God for the results, we turn to the 
discussion of our subject: The Blighted Life of 
Methuselah. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Long Life of Methuselah, 
Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years, and, though many arguments have been 
produced to show that a year then was not the 
same as a year of to-day, the truth remains that 
Moses, the writer of the statement, was the found- 
er of the Jewish religion, and nowhere in history 
can it be found that a year of to-day is less or 
more than the years spoken of elsewhere in the 
Bible. Numerous passages of Scripture tell us 
of years in such terms that there can be no shadow 
of doubt as to their length. Corn crops grow only 
once in our years of to-day. The forty-first chap- 
ter of Genesis tells of Pharaoh's dream concern- 
ing the seven years of plenty and the seven years 
of famine. It tells of the gathering of crops and 
enlarging of barns in such explicit language that 
every one who reads it may know that the corn 
crops grew annually, just as they do to-day. In 
Genesis, Moses gives the life of Sarai, saying she 

was old and stricken in age, and had reached the 

(13) 



14 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

climacteric period of her life. Her husband was 
ninety years old, and the statement that she had 
passed the custom of women is evidence that 
the years accounted to her were about the same 
that we count to-day. 

God inspired Moses to write the Book of Gene- 
sis, but the facts recorded are stated by Moses 
in language with which he was thoroughly con- 
versant. He was educated in all the wisdom and 
science of Egypt, and he was familiar with the 
signs of the zodiac and their markings of years. 
I believe there was no shadow of doubt in his 
mind as to the truth of his statement when he 
wrote the words, ''And all the days of Methuse- 
lah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and 
he died.'' And because I find everything in the 
Bible which I can comprehend is true, I believe 
with my whole heart that the rest is true also, 
and only regret that my understanding is so 
blurred, and my knowledge is so limited, that I 
cannot comprehend the depth of what I believe, 
but cannot explain. 

Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years, and if, in the length of our short life, men 
born in ignorance, can grow to manhood, get an 
education, change the very face of the earth, and 
startle the universe by their wonderful achieve- 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 15 

ments, what must have been the opportunities 
afforded Methuselah for development along all 
lines while living through nine hundred and sixty- 
nine years? The ghost of premature death had 
never been seen, for all who lived before him, 
neared or passed the ninth century mile-post in 
the path of human existence, except his father, 
Enoch, who, walking with God, grew tired of mor- 
tality in his three hundred and sixty-fifth year, 
and went to the Great Beyond. 

The days of our life are three score years and 
ten; his nearly a thousand. You will have some 
idea of the vast period of time which his long 
life covered when I tell you if he had been born 
in the days of Peter the Hermit, A.D. 1050, he 
would have been a man twenty-seven years old 
when Jerusalem, which for a long time had been 
in the hands of the Calif of Omar, passed under 
the Turkman domination. He would have been 
forty-nine years old when Peter the Hermit aroused 
the fiery piety and chivalry of Europe and led 
to that extraordinary succession of holy wars, 
which restored the tomb of our Lord and the Holy 
City back into Christian hands. He would have 
been four hundred and forty-two years old when 
Columbus discovered America; he would have 
seen all the advancements of civilization since the 



16 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

Mayflower landed at Plymouth. He would have 
been eight hundred and sixty-three years old when 
Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation which 
unbound the fetters from four and a half million 
souls and banished slavery from the United 
States. He could have fought in the Spanish- 
American war; taken part in all the political ha- 
rangues of to-day, and still have one hundred and 
forty-two years to prepare for death, which would 
not be due to come to him until every person now 
alive would be dead, and the calendars of the 
world were showing the eclipses and moon 
changes for the year two thousand and forty-nine. 
From his knowledge of the past, Methuselah could 
inaugurate movements which it would take him 
centuries to accomplish without ever being har- 
assed by the fear that death would interrupt his 
plans. 

If, within the short space of time that men live 
to-day, they can develop every faculty of the soul 
so that the understanding can compass the earth, 
measure the heavenly bodies and foreknow each 
eclipse to a minute many years before it comes 
to pass; yea, if within the short limit of three 
score years and ten, our intellect can grasp the 
torchlight of science, and, entering the halls of 
nature, unlock the secret chambers of creative 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 17 

skill and harnessing the fiery elements send 
them on errands as swift-winged messengers; if 
men born within this century have threaded the 
world with railroads, taught inanimate machinery 
to speak with human distinctness, and communi- 
cate with those in distant parts through the me- 
dium of wireless telegraphy; what must have 
been the opportunities afforded Methuselah while 
living through nine hundred and sixty-nine years ! 
Did he seize those opportunities as an eagle 
would its fleeing prey, or did he allow them to 
pass unnoticed as would swine rare gems and val- 
uable diamonds, not knowing of nor caring for 
their intrinsic value? Must we declare that he 
is happy with the blest simply because no broth- 
er's blood cried from the ground against him 
as it did against Cain? Shall we call him a right- 
eous father simply because he is not referred to 
as taking an active part in the sins of his day? 
No, dear reader, God's plan has never changed 
with reference to the salvation of this world. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Creation of the World. 

Out in the fathomless ocean of immensity, God 
placed the sun-dial of Love. He set it with the 
energy of Omnipotence, and the shadow of time 
began to move off in waves of action toward the 
shores of eternity. Upon one of those waves 
God launched a creation called heaven and earth, 
weird and without form ; "And the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters'* (Gen. i:2), 
amid the awful darkness of that mighty deep. 
God spoke, and His words caused the heaven to 
oscillate with tremendous ponderosity; the vibra- 
tions from which moved off through the luminous 
ether in such rapid succession and at such a ter- 
rific rate of speed they illuminated the universe 
when God said, "Let there be light." 

At the simple command of God, the firmament 
leaped forth from the womb of Time, and sta- 
tioned itself as a sentinel to separate the waters 
above from those below. With the great dipper 
of authority, God lifted all the waters under the 

(i8) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 19 

heavens, poured them into the hollow places called 
seas, and let the dry land appear. He breathed 
on the earth, and the soil became pregnant and 
gave birth to all manner of vegetation, the blos- 
soming flowers from which perfumed the air with 
a sweet aroma. He touched the water of the 
sea, and it conceived and bore an abundance of 
moving creatures; some rising above the waters 
and flying through the heavens, while others, 
called fish, went swimming through the deep. He 
spoke to the earth, and the dust became vivified 
and, assuming various shapes, began to move 
about in the form of all the different creatures 
that fill the earth with animation. Some of the 
creatures, though perfectly formed and given a 
full set of faculties, are so small and yet so nu- 
merous that eight hundred million worlds like 
ours would be required to maintain a human pop- 
ulation equal to the number of these tiny crea- 
tures that live and move in a cubic inch of space. 
All the myriads and myriads of worlds that sweep 
through space — massive creations in themselves — 
many of them immensely larger than our own, 
running wider revolutions, and drawing after 
them brighter trains; these, and myriads more 
of worlds that do not come within the borders 
of our solar family, were all formed from an atom 



20 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

of nothing by the fiat of Almighty God, and, 
through all, there is evidence of a divine plan and 
arrangement. Man was the crowning triumph of 
creative effort. He is greater than the world 
in which he lives, and there is more mystery in 
the union of the soul and the body than there is 
in the creation of all the systems of worlds that 
make up the universe. His anatomy, his physical 
formation, his intellectual and spiritual nature, 
together with the fact that he was given the 
power of speech and the ability to balance him- 
self and walk erect, give man a pre-eminence over 
all the other objects of God's creation. He was 
the last, as well as the fairest, of God's divine 
works, and was not brought into existence until 
everything for his comfort had been made, and 
all preparations for his reception and happiness 
were complete. The earth had been fashioned in 
all its transcendant beauty, and Eden had been 
enriched with all her stores of verdant foliage. 
Then, while surrounded by all the created hosts 
and the efflorescence of nature, amid anthems 
of joy and jubilations of praise from beasts and 
birds and flowers and fish and all the millions 
of created forms that joined in the universal cho- 
rus, "when the morning stars sang together and 
all the Sons of God shouted for joy," God, as a 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 21 

crowning cap-sheaf to his handiwork, said, "Let 
us make man in our image, after our likeness." 

Why did not God speak man into existence, as 
he did everything else? Why was it necessary 
for the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the 
wonderful Creator, to call a consultation before 
making man? Why did He not rend the rocks 
asunder with the thunder of His awful voice, and, 
calling, as did Christ at the grave of Lazarus, 
bid man come forth from the bowels of the earth ? 
The only reasonable answer is this: Man 
was the earthly reflection of the heavenly 
glory of God, and, as such, all heaven was asked 
to assist in making him, that he might be within 
himself a perfect reflection of all that heaven 
was, "So God created man in His own image;" 
"and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
and man became a living soul," possessing all 
the attributes and graces of Deity, and endowed 
with immortality of existence. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Divine Purpose of Creation. 

Remember, dear reader, this was not absolutely 
necessary, for God is omniscient, as well as om- 
nipotent. He could have made man perfect with- 
out the aid or assistance of any of the heavenly 
host. But it was in the divine purpose of God 
to have all heaven interested in man, and so all 
heaven was consulted before he was created. And 
so also it is in the divine purpose of God to have 
man interested in the salvation of man, and no 
man can have hope of an eternal abode in the 
kingdom of Christ, unless he is in perfect accord 
with heaven's chief aim — ^the restoration of man 
back into the image of God. 

When man transgressed the law of God and 
fell from his high and holy estate, his graces 
and virtues, like the good things of Prometheus, 
when Pandora opened the box of the Greek's 
first man, took wings and flew away. All that 
was left to Adam was hope, and penitently kneel- 

(22) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 23 

ing upon it, he prayed to God for forgiveness. 
God, who looked down in tender compassion on 
the prostrate form of fallen man, as he wept and 
mourned over his lost estate, graciously pardoned 
him, and consoled him with the promise that '*His 
seed should bruise the serpent's head/' Though 
man had lost his physical immortality, his soul 
would live forever; though he could no longer 
inhabit the blissful shades of an earthly Eden, he 
could become an expectant of the kingdom of God. 
He could no longer come into existence full grown 
and full of wisdom. The faculties are all there, 
but they must be developed. Man comes into ex- 
istence innocent, but ignorant. He is physio- 
logically perfect, but he is utterly helpless. He 
is capable of infinite wisdom and goodness, but 
he must be instructed. He is his own free moral 
agent, and must choose for himself his eternal 
abode. The devil and all the hosts of hell beset 
him as soon as he is born, and try by all the 
subtlety of his satanic strategy to attract him 
hellward. The sweet influence of the Holy Spirit 
seeks, through the word of truth, to restore him 
back into the image of his God. It is the divine 
purpose of God that man assist in this great work. 
He is eminently fitted for it, and he saves his own 
soul only by seeking the salvation of others. 



CHAPTER V. 



A Vision of Adam. 

In a vision I can see Adam, the father of the 
human race and transgressor of heaven's law. 
He has been hurled from the thron3 of power, 
and driven from the garden made for him by his 
Creator. His kingdom has been confiscated. His 
lordship and power of authority have become 
things of the past. The beasts and birds no longer 
obey his mandates, but make the woods ring 
with hideous sounds, as they prey upon each 
other. The soft zephyrs which gently disturbed 
the sweet-smelling foliage of Eden, having be- 
come vexed and lashed themselves into wrathsome 
fury, are sweeping through the land in death- 
dealing tornadoes and cyclones. His children, 
nourished from the breast of the same mother, 
have quarreled, and Cain having slain his brother 
and buried him in the soil, has fled as a fugitive 
from justice, almost breaking the heart of his 
mother, who weeps and mourns because her sons 

are no longer where she can fondle them in her 
(24) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 2.o 

loving embrace. The angels of Peace and Happi- 
ness, sent from the courts of glory to abide with 
man, have spread their wings and taken their 
fight from the sin-cursed earth. Discord can 
be heard in every hand, and over the whole realm 
of nature the evil genius of sin is now pre- 
siding. 

Year after year, decade after decade, century 
after century passes, increasing the number of 
Adam's posterity, and augmenting his grief and 
sorrow. I can see him, with a deep-wrinkled, 
care-worn face, down the cheeks of which tears 
of remorse are streaming. Decrepitude has visit- 
ed him and made an exchange of age for youth. 
Feeble and old, he leans for support on the prom- 
ise of God. Around him are gathered a company 
of his posterity, the older of whom look thought- 
fully upon the ground, while the younger ones look 
anxiously about, as if fearful of some approach- 
ing danger. As I watch the company, I behold 
Adam sighing as if his heart would break, as ten- 
derly he beckons to Eve, who with feeble step 
and bended form, leaning upon the broad shoul- 
ders of Seth for support, cautiously wends her way 
to him and takes a seat by his side. Her face 
shows signs of much bodily suffering, and her 
hair is white with age, but the tender look of a 



26 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

mother's love can still be seen in her sunken eyes 
as sihe scans the group surrounding her, as if to 
see that none are absent. The sun is gradually 
sinking behind the western hills, the refracted 
rays from which stream off among the trees, 
giving a golden tinge to the verdant ^foliage. 
Every hillside, valley and plain, as far as the 
eye can behold, is a scene of such indescribable 
beauty we are forced to exclaim with the Psalm- 
ist, ''The heavens declare the glory of God : and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork," (Psa, 
xix:l.) 

As the last rays of the setting sun fade into 
twilight, Adam rises to his feet and addresses 
the company in a low, tremulous voice. He recites 
a passage from the book of his experience. He 
tells them how he sinned against the law of God, 
and the consequent effects it had upon him. He 
tells them, as he had heard it from the lips of 
God, about the war in heaven; the overthrow of 
Satan and his cohorts ; the creation of the world ; 
his stay in the Garden of Eden; the allurements 
of the evil one ; how he seeks to apostatize the hu- 
man race and alienate it from God. He tells 
them of how the Lord God made coats of skin 
and clothed them, of His promise to redeem them 
from the curse of the broken law, and admon- 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 27 

ishes them to serve the Lord with sacrifice, and 
believe with all their heart that He will keep 
His promise. He contrasts his present sorrow 
with his long-lost happiness, and as the pent-up 
sorrow of his soul overwhelms him, hot 'Tears 
of penitential grief burst forth from every eye." 

Eve lifts her voice, which has not yet lost its 
Eden sweetness, and leads the evening hymn, 
the words of which I cannot understand, by rea- 
son of the sobbing emotions of Adam, augment- 
ed by the wails of the weeping company. Adam 
lifts his hands toward the heavens, and in hu- 
miliation, every member of the company falls 
prostrate in the dust to pour out the agony of 
their soul in prayer to God. Prayer is over, and 
all retire for the night, satisfied that God will 
watch over them while they sleep, and protect 
them from every harm. 

Now, remember, dear reader, the Bible does 
not say that Adam was ever visited by any of 
his posterity; neither does it aver that he was a 
preacher of righteousness; but the thoughtful 
reader of God's Word will bear witness that I 
have not overdrawn the picture. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Evidence that Adam Taught His Posterity. 
In the fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis, 
the second verse, we are told that Cain was a 
farmer; Abel, a shepherd. The second, third and 
fourth verses of the same chapter tell us that Cain 
offered fruit ; Abel, a choice lamb. The fourth and 
fifth verses aver that God had respect for the offer- 
ing of Abel, but rejected the offering of Cain. The 
eighth verse says Cain rose up against his brother 
and slew him ; and the seventeenth verse tells 
how Cain, after murdering his brother, wandered 
off in the Land of Nod, raised a family and built 
a city. Now, all these actions were the result of 
knowledge previously obtained ; for it is an axiom 
in philosophy that no finite mind can conceive an 
entirely new thing. But, whence came they in 
possession of such knowledge as would enable 
them to know what would be the results of their 
efforts? Where had they ever heard a musical 
instrument? How did they know that it were 
possible to take life from a living organism by 

administering a blow upon the same? Who taught 
(28) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 29 

Jabal to dwell in tents and herd cattle? (Gen. 
iv:20). And where did Tubal Cain conceive the 
idea that brass and iron could be moulded into 
different forms and polished to a luster? You 
cannot say they happened to imbibe the ideas 
which led to those various pursuits by chance or 
force of circumstances. God held Cain accounta- 
ble for not bringing as a sin offering the right 
kind of a sacrifice; and pronounced a curse upon 
him for murdering his brother, whose sacrifice 
Vv^as pleasing to the Lord. This is conclusive evi- 
dence that they had been instructed along those 
very lines, and there v/as no excuse to offer. God 
never holds any man responsible for a transgres- 
sion until he has been instructed concerning its 
awful consequences. Paul says (Rom. vii:7-8), 
"I had not known sin, but by the law: for with- 
out the law sin is dead." Romans, fifth chapter, 
thirteenth verse, reads thus: ''For until the law 
sin was in the world : but sin is not imputed where 
there is no law." And Jesus said (John xv:22), 
"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they 
had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for 
their sin." From this we conclude that these men 
had been instructed, and knew the results of their 
actions, and the kind of sacrifice that would be 
pleasing to their God. 



30 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

But who taught them these things, and whence 
came they in possession of knowledge concern- 
ing things of which they had not dreamed? The 
only reasonable conclusion is to suppose that they 
were taught by the father of the human race, who, 
having spent many evenings conversing with his 
Maker, amid the shady boughs and sweet-smell- 
ing foliage of Eden, had been taught of God con- 
cerning everything pertaining to the interests of 
humanity. Knowing, as we do, the delight it is 
to children to visit their ancestors, and the relish 
with which aged parents tell their children of the 
wonderful exploits, daring deeds, hair-breadth es- 
capes and awe-inspiring scenes which they have 
witnessed from time to time, we are sure that 
Adam was often surrounded by eager listeners, 
to whom he would give glowing accounts of the 
joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, blessings and 
curses, plenty and poverty that had checkered his 
life from his creation. Through conversations 
like these, Adam, no doubt, told them how the 
transcendant beauty of this world was created 
by the omnipotence of Jehovah, giving them a 
minute description of the Garden of Eden, and 
repeating to them, as he had heard from the lips 
of his Creator, how the orchestra of heaven played 
the sweet symphonies of Paradise; and the angel 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 31 

choir led in the chorus, "and the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy" when the world was created. (Job xxxviii: 
7). He reiterated to them the story of the fall, 
of the promise to redeem them (Gen. iii:15), of 
how the Lord God made coats of skin (Gen. ii: 
21) , and clothed them; of how he was driven from 
the garden to till the ground (Gen. iii:23) from 
whence he was taken, and how God placed angels 
with ever-turning, flaming swords at the gates 
of Eden (Gen. iii:24) to keep the way of the 
tree of life. Many of these scenes, no doubt, 
were described by Adam in such graphic word- 
paintings that they became as real pictures to 
his eager listeners. 

Thus Cain got his idea of farming, Abel of 
sheep-raising, and what would be a pleasing sac- 
rifice. Through these talks, no doubt, Adam 
taught his posterity how to gain a livelihood, and 
thus began the branching out into different pur- 
suits, according as different ones were impressed 
differently from listening to his conversations; 
while those of an inventive turn of mind were 
led to attempt a reproduction of some of the things 
which Adam described as having seen and heard. 
Thus began the imitative efforts which resulted 
in the invention of the loom for cloth weaving, 



32 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

the working in brass and iron, and the invention 
of musical instruments. But these inventors and 
craftsmen v^ere descendants of Cain (Gen. iv: 
20-22), who wandered away from Adam to the 
other side of the Garden of Eden (Gen. iv:16), 
and built a beautiful city in the Land of Nod. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Difference Between Saints and Sinners. 

Adam was deeply interested in the salvation of 
men, and the characteristic difference between the 
heaven-bound mortals and those destined to eter- 
nal banishment from the presence of God is a 
longing interest in the saving of souls and teach- 
ing men what God would have them knov/. Every 
man, from Adam on dov/n to the present day, 
is offered an opportunity to help in the work of 
trying to redeem man from the curse of the brok- 
en law. Adam, as we have shown, was a preacher 
of righteousness, Seth was called "the appointed,'' 
and Moses tells us that Enoch and Noah walked 
with God. The plan of salvation is such that m.an 
saves his own soul only by saving others. Every 
man is expected to help, and Christ, the Captain 
of our salvation, declares, "He that is not with me 
is against me; and he that gathereth not with me 
scattereth.'' (Matt. xii:30.) The man or woman 
who sits idly by and allows a soul to be lost with- 
out using every available effort in the attempt to 

(33) 



34 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

save that soul will be required to give an account 
for the same at the bar of God. 

Joe Stoker, the brakeman, was ordered to has- 
ten to the curve and wave his lantern that the 
coming express train might know that there was 
danger ahead. He delayed, leisurely pulling on 
his overcoat, then getting a drink of whiskey, 
then lighting his pipe. When he heard the whis- 
tle of the engine coming around the curve, he 
hastened with all possible speed to obey the com- 
mand he had received, but, alas, too late. The 
fast train came bursting around the curve, tele- 
scoping the wrecked train, and hurling its cargo 
of human souls into eternity. When Joe Stoker 
was found the next morning, his mind was gone, 
and, a wild maniac, he stood in a barn swinging 
his empty lantern before an imaginary train and 
crying in the agony of his soul, "Oh, that I had! 
Oh, that I had!'' With the world full of work 
that needs to be done; with human nature so 
constituted that often a pleasant word or a tri- 
fling assistance may stem the tide of disaster for 
some f ellowman, or clear his path to heaven ; with 
our own faculties so arranged that in honest, 
earnest, persistent endeavor we find our highest 
good, and with countless noble examples to en- 
courage us to dare and do, each moment brings 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 35 

us to the threshold of some new opportunity for 
improving the stock of the human race. For God's 
sake, do not let them pass lest when it is too late, 
like Joe Stoker, you will be heard to say, ''Oh, 
that I had! Oh, that I had!" 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Methuselah Contemporary With Adam. 

According to the dates given in the fifth chap- 
ter of Genesis, Adam was one hundred and thirty 
years old when he begat Seth ; Seth was one hun- 
dred and five years old when he begat Enos ; Enos 
was ninety years old when he begat Cainan ; Cainan 
v/as seventy years old when he begat Mahalaleel; 
Mahalaleel was sixty-five years old when he be- 
gat Jared; Jared was one hundred and sixty-two 
years old when he begat Enoch ; Enoch was sixty- 
five years old when he begat Methuselah. Now, 
if Adam was created in the year one, reckoning 
from the beginning, then, we find, by comparing 
the dates above given, that Seth was born in the 
year one hundred and thirty; Enos, in the year 
two hundred and thirty-five; Cainan, in the year 
three hundred and twenty-five ; Mahalaleel, in the 
year three hundred and ninety-five; Jared, in the 
year four hundred and sixty; Enoch, in the year 
six hundred and twenty-two; and Methuselah, in 

the year six hundred and eighty-seven, 
(36) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 37 

Now, the records show that Adam lived nine 
hundred and thirty years ; and if he were six hun- 
dred and eighty-seven years old when Methuselah 
was born, then it follows that Methuselah was 
two hundred and forty-three years old when Adam 
died. 

When Frederick, the Emperor of Saxony, was 
told by a celebrated genealogist, that a copy of 
his pedigree was preserved in the ark of Noah, 
he neglected all the affairs of state, and wandered 
about from place to place in a vain attempt to 
find Noah's ark. And how can we for a moment 
believe that any man could live on earth two 
hundred and forty-three years and not seek the 
acquaintance and companionship of Adam, the 
only human being that was ever permitted to 
talk with God face to face (Gen. iii :8) ? 

By comparing the descendants of Adam through 
Seth with those who were descendants from Cain, 
we find that Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain — the 
last three sons mentioned in the lineage of Cain 
— were all three of the same generation, and con- 
temporary with Methuselah, v/ho, as we have 
shown, was born two hundred and forty-three 
years before Adam died. That Jabal, Jubal and 
Tubal-Cain were frequent visitors of Adam there 
can be no doubt, for they became the world's first 



38 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

inventors and craftsmen, as we have previously 
shown, and Adam was the only source from which 
they could have gained the knowledge necessary 
to prepare them for such mighty works. But Ja- 
bal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain were descendants of 
Cain, who dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the other 
side of the Garden of Eden. And if those who 
lived in another part of the then-known world 
had knowledge of Adam and visited him often 
enough to grasp ideas that developed into won- 
derful inventions for the advancement of civil- 
ization, then I am certain, beyond a shadow of 
doubt, that Methuselah, descending from Seth, 
the appointed (Gen. iv:25), through Enoch who 
walked with God (Gen. v:24), and living upon 
the earth for two hundred and forty-three years 
before Adam left it, was thoroughly acquainted 
with the father of the human race, and knew of 
sin and its awful effects upon the soul. Works 
of righteousness were as needful then as now, 
and any failure on his part to serve the Lord was 
as noticeable then as it would be now. The law 
of God has always been the same. He himself 
says (Mai. iii:4-6), "I am the Lord, I change 
not.'' 



CHAPTER IX. 



Methuselah Contemporary With All Who 
Lived Before the Flood. 

Having shown that Methuselah was acquainted 
with Adam and knew his career, let us now pro- 
ceed to study his life history and see who else 
he may have known among the antedeluvian pa- 
triarchs while living through nine hundred and 
sixty-nine years. When he was one hundred and 
eighty-seven years old, he begat Lamech; and 
when Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two 
years old, he begat Noah. Thus Methuselah was 
three hundred and sixty-nine years old when Noah 
was born. 

Adam, having been created in the year one, 
and living nine hundred and thirty years, died in 
the year nine hundred and thirty. Seth was born 
in the year one hundred and thirty, and living 
nine hundred and twelve years, died in the year 
ten hundred and forty. Enos was born in the 
year two hundred and thirty-five, and, living nine 
hundred and five years, died in the year eleven 

(39) 



40 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

hundred and forty. Cainan was born in the year 
three hundred and twenty-five, and, living nine 
hundred and ten years, died in the year twelve 
hundred and thirty-five. Mahalaleel was born in 
the year three hundred and ninety-five, and, living 
eight hundred and ninety-five years, died in the 
year twelve hundred and ninety. Jared was born 
in the year four hundred and sixty, and, living 
nine hundred and sixty-two years, died in the 
year fourteen hundred and twenty-two. Enoch 
was born in the year six hundred and twenty-two, 
and, being taken by the Lord, with whom he 
walked three hundred years after his son was 
born, he left the world in the year nine hundred 
and eighty-seven. Methuselah was born in the 
year six hundred and eighty-seven, and, living 
nine hundred and sixty-nine years, died in the 
year sixteen hundred and fifty-six. Lamech was 
born in the year eight hundred and seventy-four, 
and, living seven hundred and seventy-seven 
years, he died in the year sixteen hundred and 
fifty-one. Noah was born in the year ten hundred 
and fifty-six, and, living nine hundred and fifty 
years, died in the year two thousand and six. 

From the above facts, it is clearly apparent to 
all that Methuselah was contemporary with all 
who lived from the time Adam was six hundred 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 41 

and eighty-seven years old down to the time when 
his grandson, Noah, was a man of six hundred 
summers. He saw the death, and, no doubt, at- 
tended the funeral of Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, 
Mahalaleel, Jared, and his own son, Lamech, who, 
living seven hundred and seventy-seven years, 
died five years before his father, Methuselah. 

Now, if for argument's sake, we should grant 
that it were possible for Methuselah to have lived 
for two hundred and eighty-seven years near 
Adam, and j^et not know him, is it not reasonable 
to suppose that, being contemporary with all w^ho 
lived before the flood, he knev/ w^hy he was forced 
to earn a living by the sweat of his brow? Am 
I not justified in the sight of heaven when I say 
he was thoroughly conversant v/ith God's law, 
and was in possession of the knowledge which the 
world had at that time? Yes, dear reader, I am 
satisfied that I only speak that which is the de- 
cision of every thinking mind v/ho reads these 
pages, and to which, I believe, the angels of glory, 
if called upon to bear witness, would say, "Amen,'^ 



CHAPTER X. 

Methuselah's Opportunities for Instructing 

Others. 

Age naturally awakens our respect, and Methu- 
selah must have been much revered by reason of 
the longevity which he enjoyed. He could speak 
as an eye-witness of the world's happenings from 
Adam to his grandson Noah. Slowly the centu- 
ries had unfolded one by one before him, as leis- 
urely he walked along from his cradle to the grave. 
Cedars which he planted in his youth had grown 
old and rotted down. Firm rocks on the mountain, 
down whose sides the waters flowed, had been 
washed away, while he, unharmed by the grim 
monster Death, was allowed to live on amid the 
ever-verdant vales of waving palm trees and 
sweet-smelling foliage of vine-clad hills. 

He was infinitely better prepared to be a preach- 
er of righteousness than any man that ever lived, 
for from observation he had seen the results of 
sinning against God, and the advantage his father 
had above the world by walking with him. He 

could reason from cause to effect, and conversely, 
(42) 



The Blighted Life of Methiiselah. 43 

concerning many things, which to others of those 
living were complicated problems. 

He could have given to the world proverbs of 
far more import and meaning than ever fell from 
the lips of Solomon; for Solomon's life was not 
longer than a life of to-day; and though he, as 
an unrestrained polygamist, indulged the unsa- 
tiable lust of the flesh until a thousand women 
were calling him husband, Methuselah could tell 
of experiences that would pale into insignificance 
the most voluptuous scenes of Solomon's gilded 
palace. Methuselah had seen women whose beau- 
ty was beyond the power of words to describe, 
and who, in sensual lust and alluring carnality, 
were such temptations that the legates of glory 
— the sons of God — could not withstand their am- 
orous alkahests (Gen., vi:2-4) and married them, 
producing a peculiarly large-bodied posterity 
called giants. Solomon could only say (Prov. 
i:8), **My son, hear the instruction of thy fath- 
er." Methuselah lived until his great-grandsons 
were a hundred years old ; and he must have been 
often consulted for counsel and advice, for he was 
one hundred and eighty-seven years older than 
any other man upon the earth. 



CHAPTER XL 



Methuselah's Opportunities for Favor With 

God. 
Methuselah's life, as we have said, was a long 
one. The dark cloud of immorality, which was 
no bigger than the palm of the hand when he came 
into existence, had spread over the entire heav- 
ens of moral purity from pole to pole, shutting off 
the refracted rays from the *'Son of righteous- 
ness." Man had become so depraved that ''every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually.'' (Gen. vi:8.) The sons of 
God, through the daughters of men, had filled the 
land with giants. They vv^ere a warlike people, 
and became valiant for their strength and cour- 
age. Sin and imm.orality filled the atmosphere 
with such a foul stench that the odor was diffused 
through the rarefied ether of the celestial world, 
and reached the nostrils of the King of Kings. The 
thunder of His awful word reverberated from 
the hills of Zion as the wrath of God was kindled, 
and He exclaimed: ''I will destroy man whom 
I have created from the face of the earth; both 

(44) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 45 

man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the 
fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me that I have 
made them." (Gen. vi :7.) 

Surely a man occupying the strategic point in 
the affairs of men that Methuselah held could not 
have escaped the all-seeing eye of God, or the sa- 
cred historians if he did anything worthy of the 
notice of God or man. He was the son of Enoch^ 
a mian who, by the firmness of his desire to grow 
better, was able, by daily effort (notwithstanding 
the sin and immorality v/hich surrounded him on 
every hand) to bring under subjection every evil 
desire and walk with God for three hundred years. 
He was the grandfather of Noah, who, Peter tells 
us, "v/as a preacher of righteousness ;'' and the au- 
thor of Genesis described as "walking with God." 
Doubtless, he was thoroughly acquainted with La- 
mech of Cain; had held many conversations with 
him, and heard him when he exclaimed, ''I have 
slain a man to miy wounding, and a young man 
to my hurt." (Gen. iv:23.) 

Numerous incidents connected with the time in 
which he lived prove that the actions of God to- 
ward men in the days of Methuselah were exactly 
the same as they are to-day, and His law, though, 
perhaps, unwritten, was diligently taught, and 
thoroughly understood, and, therefore, was as 



46 The Blighted Life of Methitselah. 

binding upon the human heart as it is to-day. When 
Adam, who by his disobedience, had brought death 
to the entire world, showed signs of repentance 
for his sin committed, God heard his penitent 
cry, forgave him his transgression, and consoled 
him with a promise that his seed should bruise 
the serpent's head. When Abel brought of the 
firstling of his flock and offered it as an oblation 
for his sins, ''God had respect unto Abel and to 
his offering.'' (Gen. iv:4.) When Cain failed 
to bring the right kind of a sacrifice, it was re- 
jected. When he had slain his brother and wept 
over the justly deserved curse which God pro- 
nounced upon him, mercy was shown him, and 
God set a mark upon him ; and the court of heaven 
decreed that "whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance 
shall be taken on him seven-fold." (Gen. iv:15.) 
When Enoch, losing sight of all else besides, 
walked with Him for three hundred years, God 
took him away from the trials of this sin-cursed 
earth (Gen. v:27.), and when Noah was found 
righteous before God, notwithstanding, it repent- 
ed Him that he had made man and in wrath and 
indignation he had decided to destroy him in a 
universal overflow, he directed this, the only holy 
man in all the world, how he might save himself 
and his family from the Deluge. 



CHAPTER XIL 



Methuselah Rejected. 

Having spoken at length of the many opportu- 
nities afforded Methuselah, let us now see if 
any evidence can be brought to show that he util- 
ized them or not ; for, unless evidence can be pro- 
duced to show that he was in disfavor with God, 
then we must confess that he died and was sent 
out of the world to escape some approaching dan- 
ger, and is happy with the blest. In order, there- 
fore, that we may have a clear knowledge of the 
case before us, I shall first attempt to prove to 
you that he was rejected of the Lord, and, sec- 
ondly, that his death was one of soul, as well as 
body. 

First. As to his being rejected, we observe 
that it is the nature of God to always select the 
worthy ones to carry out his great plans. For in- 
stance, Moses was sent from leading the sheep 
of Jethro to lead the Israelites, though Joshua 
and Caleb were both in Egypt. The Levites were 
chosen priests, though Simeon and Judah were 
both older as tribes. The sons of Jesse looked 

(47) 



48 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

kingly, but the Lord touched not the prophet until 
the ruddy youth David came in; then he said to 
Samuel, "Arise and anoint him; for this is he/' 
(1 Sam. xv:12.) Esau was Isaac's first born 
son, and justly loved by him as heir to the throne 
of opulence and birthright of power, but he was 
not a fit man to be father of so great a people 
as from whom a Savior should be born, and cir- 
cumstances gave Jacob the birthright and the 
blessing. David v/as anxious to build a house for 
the Lord, but the Lord waited until he was dead 
and let his son Solomon build it, saying (1 Chron. 
xxiirlO), "He shall build a house for my name; 
and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; 
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom 
over Israel forever." Yea, and when we, of our 
own volition, had become apostates to the prince 
of darkness, aliens from God, fit subjects for eter- 
nal condemnation, our Lord, listening to the peni- 
tential prayers of fallen man, determined to in- 
augurate a plan to rescue him from his helpless 
state. 

Through Adam, all had died, and, in order to 
open a way for man's admittance into the kingdom 
of God, justice demanded that some one should 
die to satisfy his claims ; hence the search to find 
some one who was worthy to die for the sins of 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 49 

the world. Many, no doubt, were willing; but, 
to satisfy the claims of justice, the vicarious of- 
fering must be without spot or blemish, in order 
to be worthy. A strong angel (Rev. v:2-9) was 
given the Book of Redemption, and he cried with 
a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book 
and to loose the seal thereof?'' If, then, none 
but the worthy are accepted with God, it follows 
that whosoever is rejected of God is unworthy. 

Methuselah was, as has been shown, in a posi- 
tion to tower head and shoulders above every 
other man who lived in his day. At the time 
when God pronoun^ced an end to all flesh, from 
point of advantages, he was more able than any 
man on earth to undertake the stupendous task 
of saving representatives of all the animal king- 
dom ; but hear the decision of the Judge of heaven 
and earth: "The end of all flesh is come before 
me; for the earth is filled with violence through 
them; and, behold, I will destroy them with 
the earth.'' (Gen. vi:13.) From this we are 
able to form some idea of the universality of mor- 
tal wickedness at that time; and we would be 
justified to decide that there was not a single, 
solitary soul upon the earth who was worthy of 
the friendly consideration of the Lord, were it 
not for the exceptions made in his own words. 



50 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

which I now read: '*Noah (Gen. vi:9) was a 
just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah 
walked with God." And "Noah (verse 8) found 
grace in the eyes of the Lord." And the Lord (14) 
said to Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood ; 
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch 
it within and without with pitch." "And, behold, 
(17) I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the 
earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of 
life, from under heaven; and everything that is 
in the earth shall die." "But with thee (18, 19) will 
I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come 
into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, 
and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every liv- 
ing thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall thou 
bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; 
they shall be male and female." 

This, therefore, excuses Noah and his sons, and 
his wife and his sons' wives from being counted 
particeps criminis in the wickedness of that time ; 
and that we may know that he was active in the 
spiritual as well as the physical salvation of the 
world, Peter holds him up before us, names the 
surrounding circumistances, that no one might 
doubt which Noah he speaks of, and calls him a 
"preacher of righteousness." (2 Peter ii:5.) 
But, in searching the Scriptures from Genesis to 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah 51 

Revelation, we have been unable to find a single 
suggestion or reference that we could use as evi- 
dence that Methuselah was interested in the 
salvation of men, or concerned about a hope of 
heaven. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Methuselah Lost. 

The Bible is a very explicit book, and every 
thought expressed in it is given by inspiration of 
God (2 Tim. iii:16), and is made so plain (Hab. 
ii:2) "that he may run that readeth it." Noah 
(Gen. vii:6) was six hundred years old before 
the flood came; and, lest some should err, and 
say the flood came at some time during the sixth 
century of Noah's life, the sacred historian has 
surrounded the fact with a breastwork of expla- 
nations and references that remove all shadow of 
doubt as to the exact time of the flood. 

The sixth verse of the seventh chapter of Gene- 
sis says, "Noah was six hundred years old when 
the flood of waters was upon the earth.'' The 
eleventh verse of the same chapter reads, "In the 
sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second 
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same 
day were all the fountains of the great deep brok- 
en up, and the windows of heaven were opened." 
The twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses of 

the ninth chapter of Genesis read thus: "And 
(52) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 53 

Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty 
years/' And, lest some future higher critic should 
say he was only approximating dates, the writer 
of the book of Genesis, sums up the life of Noah 
before and after the flood, and says (in the same 
verse), "And all the days of Noah were nine hun- 
dred and fifty years." 

Praise the Lord for the explicitness of His Holy 
Word. So clear, so definite, that "the wayfaring 
men, though fools, shall not err therein." (Isa. 
XXXV : 8.) 

If, as we have shown by a comparison of the 
dates given in the fifth chapter of Genesis, Noah 
was born in the year ten hundred and fifty-six, 
and was six hundred years old when the flood 
came, then it follows that the date of the flood 
was the year sixteen hundred and fifty-six. But, 
as we have shown, Methuselah died in the year six- 
teen hundred and fifty-six; then Methuselah died 
the same year in which the flood came. But the 
waters began to fall on the seventh day of thq 
second month of that year; then it is conclusive 
that Methuselah died between the first day of the 
first month and the seventeenth day of the second 
month — or less than forty-seven days before the 
flood of waters began to fall. 

But the doom of the world was sealed one hun- 



54 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

dred and twenty years before the flood, and twen- 
ty years before the sons of Noah were born. (Gen. 
vi:3.) And since, as we have shown, Methuselah 
died the same year in which the flood came, it 
was sealed one hundred and twenty years before 
the death of Methuselah. No one need doubt or 
be misled about the wickedness of the world at 
the time when God chose Noah to build the ark. 
At that time (1536) Adam had been dead six 
hundred and six years; Seth, four hundred and 
ninety-six years ; Enos, three hundred and ninety- 
five years; Cainan, three hundred and one years; 
Mahalaleel, two hundred and forty-six years; Ja- 
red, one hundred and fourteen years ; and Enoch, 
who, walking with God, ascended into heaven fif- 
ty-seven years after the death of Adam, had been 
gone from the sin-cursed earth five hundred and 
forty-nine years. Lamech was six hundred and 
sixty-two years old, and Noah was a youth of four 
hundred and eighty summers, neither married nor 
burdened with children. 

The doom of the world was sealed, and every- 
thing must perish in the universal ruin, except 
whom God had found worthy and perfect before 
him. And that no one might think he referred 
to the entire family when he said "Noah, have I 
found righteous," He named the persons w^ho were 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 55 

to be saved with him. Yes, thank God, their 
names are all given; and nowhere betv/een the 
lids of the Bible can we find evidence to prove 
that any other person was included. And we, 
as teachers of God's word, have no right to ex- 
onerate any person who lived at that time from 
the crime of ''being corrupt before God," except 
those eight persons whose names are given. 

But one hundred and twenty years before the 
flood, all the world except Noah and his three 
sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, was cor- 
rupt before God, and doomed to die. And since, 
as we have shown, Methuselah died the same year 
in which the flood came, then the logical conclu- 
sion is that when the doom of the world was sealed 
Methuselah was also corrupt before God and 
doomed to die. But God says (Ezek. xviii:4), 
''The soul that sinneth it shall die," and (Ezek. 
xxxviii:9), "If he do not turn from his way, he 
shall die in his iniquity;" "For the Lord (Neb. 
1:3) v/ill not at all acquit the wicked." From 
this it is evident that the doom sealed upon Me- 
thuselah was effective upon his soul, as Vv^ell as 
upon his body; for the Psalmist tells us that "the 
wicked shall be turned into hell v/ith all the na- 
tions that forget God," (Psa., ix:17), and that we 
may know something of the torture of hell, the 



56 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

Savior gives us two pictures, one in the parable 
of the ''wedding garment/' where (Matt., xxii: 
13) he says, 'There shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth;" and the other in the parable of 
Dives and Lazarus, where he represents the rich 
man after death in the following sad words: 
(Luke, xvi:23-24) "And in hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar 
off, and Lazarus in his bosom; and he cried and 
said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and 
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his fin- 
ger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tor- 
mented in these flames/ " 

As Methuselah traveled along life's highway 
from the cradle to the grave, conscience would of- 
ten plead with him, no doubt, and urge him to 
turn away from the evils of the world and follow 
in the footsteps of his father, Enoch, who walked 
with God until he left the world. 

The funeral knell of various ones passing away 
from time to eternity would, no doubt, ring for 
a season in his ear like distant peals of thunder 
that give warning of a storm, and urge him to 
"prepare to meet his God/' The sweet influence 
of the Holy Spirit, striving to win him over from 
the crooked way of sin and folly, often exerted 
its beneflcence upon him as it led Enoch away 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 57 

from the carnal lusts of the flesh into the king- 
dom of God. And, though none of these things 
moved him to repent, the mercy of God allowed 
him to live on. 

Onward the centuries pass, leaving Methuselah 
at the close of each, further and further away 
from God; further and further from the light of 
heaven. I can see him walking along life's high- 
way. His face has been furrowed by the plow- 
share of centuries; his locks have been whitened 
with the paint-brush of Time, and hang in di- 
sheveled curls around his drooping head, like moss 
around the mistletoe of a leaning oak near the 
banks of Bayou La Teche. The finger of infirmity 
has touched his thigh, and his step is no longer 
quick and agile, but slow and cautious. His sight 
is dim and he has lost his way. Amid the fog 
and smoke of sin that surround him on every 
hand, he travels on, he knows not where. As the 
huntsman, lost in the woods, is apt to wander 
further away from the open path as he tries to 
find his way out from among the entanglement 
of shrub and underbrush, so Methuselah goes 
deeper and further into the darkness of sin as 
the memory of past events fades from his mind; 
still, the mercy of God allowed him to live on. 

Wickedness continues to grow, and God has de- 



58 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

clared an end to all flesh. The time of fulfill- 
ment has been set for one hundred and twenty 
years hence. Methuselah hears the King of Glory 
talking with Noah about the wickedness of the 
world and His determination to destroy the same. 
He hears the Lord God reading the specifications 
of the ark to Noah, and instructing him how to 
erect the same. According to the directions given 
in the sixth chapter of Genesis, the ark was five 
hundred and fifty-five feet long, ninety-two feet 
wide and fifty-five feet high. Noah was ordered 
to build it three stories high. He could have had 
on the first two stories of this wonderful ship 
one thousand rooms ten feet square and eighteen 
feet from the ^oor to the ceiling for the various 
animals, a suit of twelve rooms of like dimensions 
for himself and his family; and still had the en- 
tire third floor containing 910,800 cubic feet of 
space as a storeroom for his food supplies. Me- 
thuselah sees his grandson and great-grandsons 
preparing to undertake this stupendous task, with- 
out even so much as advising or suggesting a sin- 
gle thing worthy of notice, and still the mercy of 
God allow^ed him to live on. 

He watches them daily as they work away try- 
ing to build the ark according to the command of 
God. He hears the people deriding them, and is 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 59 

sufficiently able to warn them of their folly, but 
he takes no part, asks no questions, offers no as- 
sistance, gives no ear to their preaching, advises 
no one to believe them, benefits no one by his long 
life and varied experience; and still the mercy of 
God allowed him to live on. 

The ark is completed, and he sees Noah and his 
sons gathering grain supplies to board the animal 
kingdom of the world for one year. He sees rep- 
resentatives of all the life-breathing animals 
gathering around and entering the ark, as if cog- 
nizant of what would happen. He sees Noah and 
his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, prepar- 
ing to embark upon a voyage that shall not end 
until the entire world except those in the ark shall 
have been destroyed ; and, having reached the nine 
hundred and sixty-ninth milestone in the journey 
of his life, Methuselah fell lifeless in the arms 
of death, and the Scriptures say he died. 

But what profit was all his long life to him?, 
What noble deed had he done? What effort had 
he put forth to check the onrushing tide of the sin 
and immorality of his day? What influence had 
he exerted for good? What precept or example 
had he set for the uplift of man or the glory of 
God? Not one. You cannot say, dear reader, 
that history was fragmentary, and the good deeds 



60 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

of many who lived before the flood were not re- 
corded. I tell you, my friends, everything that 
was done before the flood to greatly influence the 
civilization of that day was recorded, and told to 
future generations. Even the names of the most 
important children, with date of birth and length 
of life, were all made a matter of historic record. 
(Genesis v.) It is hardly reasonable to sup- 
pose that the same historian who so carefully 
recorded in detail all the minutiae concerning the 
antediluvian patriarchs would fail to tell of the 
achievements of him who enjoyed the greatest 
longevity, if he had done a single thing worthy of 
historic note. He lived nine hundred and sixty- 
nine years, and all that the sacred historian could 
say of him was, "He died." Died ! What a state- 
ment to come from the lips of God ! Died in rela- 
tion and influence upon future generations ! Died 
to the heart, and mind, and thought, and lips of 
all the world ! Died, and his name does not appear 
again in all the Bible, except the two places, 
where, for chronological exactness, it could not 
be avoided. (1 Chron. 1:3, and St. Luke iii:27.) 
Died, to rise no more until at the last day, when 
all shall appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ. Well said are the words of Caesar, 
"Sometimes the immortal gods allow those whom 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 61 

they wish to punish for their crimes a longer ex- 
emption from punishment, and at times even bet- 
ter prosperity in business, in order that they may 
feel their punishment the more when it comes, by 
reason of a change of circumstances." Thus it 
seems to have been with Methuselah. After liv- 
ing through nine hundred and sixty-nine years, 
he escaped the Deluge by his death, only to awake 
in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. 
Is it to be wondered at that such a man, on the 
morning of the resurrection, will cry for the rocks 
and mountains to fall upon him and hide him from 
the face of an angry God? I tell you, dear read- 
ers, his conscience would bear witness against 
him; and, though angels should plead the merits 
of a Savior's blood, Methuselah would be forced 
to exclaim: 

"Show pity, Lord; O, Lord, forgive; 
And let a dying rebel live; 
Yet, if my soul is sent to hell, 
I must confess. Thou judgest well/* 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Reasons for Investigating the Life of Methu- 
selah. 

Many who read these pages will, no doubt, won- 
der why I should spend so much time and thought 
to prove that a man was lost whom all the writers 
of all the past have called one of the "holy fa- 
thers," and regarding his long life as only an il- 
lustration of the possibility of human existence, 
have been satisfied to let slumber unnoticed and 
unknown. But when it is remembered that there 
is nothing in all the Bible which is not there for 
a specific purpose, and to teach some great truth, 
then we can see the worth of the admonition of 
the Apostle who said (Acts xviirll), ''Search the 
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." 
Again, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished ;" and many of the so-called "worthless 

passages," which the casual reader and biased 
(62) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 63 

student would pass unnoticed, are pregnant with 
far more real depth of meaning than many of the 
passages upon which they write pages of com- 
ment. If God is omniscient and omnipotent, then 
we must accept it as an axiom that He had knowl- 
edge to see the end of the world from the begin- 
ning of time, and power to control the thoughts 
and pen of the sacred writers, that they could not 
utter a word other than that which would serve 
to further the ends of His great plans ; and I be- 
lieve the day will come when all the higher critics,^ 
and the worldly wise men who have done so much 
to pick flaws in the various passages of Scripture, 
whose depth of meaning they cannot fathom, will 
bow in humble submission to the mandates of God, 
and accept His Word, whether they can compre- 
hend it or not, as their only guide-book to life 
eternal. 

Another reason for investigating the life of Me- 
thuselah is the fact that the God whom I serve as 
the Captain of my salvation is a just God; and if I, 
by investigation, could find a single one whom He, 
holding up as an example, had taken into the king- 
dom of glory without m.aking any reference to 
him as being interested in works of righteousness 
or the salvation of m.en, then I would, from that 
day forward, erase from vaj Bible that passage 



•% 



64 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

of the Scriptures which tells me to bring under 
subjection every carnal desire; for surely the Lord 
will not send me to hell for doing the same things 
that others did who are happy with the blessed. 
But, in searching the Scriptures, from Genesis to 
Revelation, I fail to find any difference in the deal- 
ings of God toward the sons of men. Job said, 
"If I sin (Job x:14), then thou markest me, and 
thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity." Da- 
vid said (Psa. li:3), ''My sin is ever before me." 
Solomon said (Prov. xiii:21), ''Evil pursueth 
sinners." The Preacher said (Eccl. xii:14), "God 
shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it 
be evil." Paul said, "Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap." (Gal. vi:7.) And Peter, who was 
with Christ, the Author of our hope, during his 
entire ministry, gives the following evidence 
(2 Peter ii:4-9), "If God spared not the angels 
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and deliv- 
ered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved 
unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but 
saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of 
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the 
world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of 
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 65 

with an overflow, making them an ensample unto 
those that after should live ungodly; and deliv- 
ered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of 
the wicked : the Lord knoweth how to deliver the 
godly out of temptation, and to reserve the un- 
just unto the day of judgment to be punished." 
Not satisfied with these, I pertinently ask the King 
of Glory for a statement upon the subject, and in 
answer He thunders from the hills of Zion through 
the prophet Ezekiel, saying (Ezek. xviii:4), 'The 
soul that sinneth it shall die." I study the lives 
of the Bible heroes, and I find that the end of all 
those who strayed away from God and did not 
return is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. 
This forces me to smite my breast with my hand 
and say to my sin-stained soul : 

I must be careful how I live; 
Lord, give me righteous fear. 
For I must give account to Thee. 
For all my actions here. 



CHAPTER XV, 



Other Reasons fopw Studying the Life of Me- 
thuselah. 

Do not, for a moment, dear reader, think that 
I have launched upon a sea of speculation in deal- 
ing with a subject hitherto unnoticed. I have not 
allowed myself to use other than the Word of God 
as proof of the correctness of my position upon 
the subject. I am not unmindful of the fact that 
my argum.ent is at variance with all former teach- 
ings concerning Methuselah, but I feel easy in my 
conscience, because I have written what, in my 
m.ind, seems to be the truth concerning him; and 
praying the Holy Spirit for guidance, I have jotted 
down my thoughts as they have come to me, from 
time to time, and tried to arrange them in such 
a way that all who read them will be led to search 
the Scriptures. 

I like the invitation given from God, through 
Isaiah, who wrote (Isa. i:18), **Come now, and 
let us reason together ;'' and I hail with delight 
the mandate of heaven delivered by Peter, when 
he said (1 Peter iii : 15) , ''Sanctify the Lord God in 

(66) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 67 

your hearts : and be ready always to give an an- 
swer to every man that asketh you a reason of 
the hope that is in you." The Preacher said 
(Eccl. vii:25), "I applied mine heart to know 
and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the 
reason of things, and to know the wickedness of 
folly, even of foolishness and madness." Isaiah 
said (Isa. xli:21-22), "Produce your cause, saith 
the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith 
the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, 
and shew us what shall happen : let them shew the 
former things, what they be, that we may con- 
sider them, and know the latter end of them." 

You cannot say that these passages of Scrip- 
ture refer to a certain people or to a certain pe- 
riod of the world's history; for Jesus said, on 
one occasion (Matt. v:17-18), "Think not that 
I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I 
am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily 
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot 
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 
till all be fulfilled." The substance of the law is 
this (2 Cor. v:10), "We must all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may 
receive the things done in his body, according to 
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 
And that no one may think it optional with them 
as to their appearance at the final judgment, the 



68 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

judge of the supreme court of Israel has handed 
down a decision from which there can be no ap- 
peal. He says (Eccl. xii:13-14), "Fear God, and 
keep his commandments: for this is the whole 
duty of man. For God shall bring every work 
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether 
it be good, or whether it be evil." 

Since, then, all must appear before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ, whether we would or would 
not, it behooves us, as aspirants to life eternal, 
to study the life and character of every Bible 
hero, that we may know whether, from the facts 
given in the Scriptures, that life is in accord 
with the life of Christ, and be able to give a 
reason for the hope that is in us. 

There is an inexplicable intuition that causes 
the human heart to know those who, by birth, 
are its relatives; so also, the child of God should 
study to know who are his relatives : first, by the 
witness of the Spirit (1 John v:10) ; and, sec- 
ondly, by the kind of fruit they bear (Luke xiii: 
9). For "by their fruits (Matt. vii:20) ye shall 
know them.'' 

This is in keeping with the teachings of the 
Bible, which declare, and prove by numerous 
illustrations, that the way of holiness is an high- 
way (Isa. XXXV :3), straight (Jer. xxxi:9) and 
narrow (Matt. vii:14); and few there be that 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 69 

find it. But we, after speculative theorizing 
to make the sacred word of God harmonize with 
our earthly wisdom, seek to point out a way where- 
by all of the patriarchs of the Bible died in the 
full triumph of faith, and went sweeping through 
the pearly gates into the city of God. This gives 
hypocrites an opportunity to hope on through 
their wrongdoings. There are those who will 
lie, steal, cheat, break the commandments, and 
grieve the Holy Spirit in a thousand ways, and, 
pointing with injured innocence to some hero of 
the Bible who did the same things, they fold their 
arms in undisturbed peace and rejoice to tell you 
that they are on their steady march to heaven 
and its immortal glory. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Facts Worth Knowing. 

Some tell us that the long life of Methuselah 
was of great worth to the world in passing knowl- 
edge from Adam to Noah without the interven- 
tion of another generation, whereby some of the 
facts might not have been known. They say the 
fact that he was with Adam during two hundred 
and forty-three years of his life, and with Noah 
for six hundred years causes the life of Methu- 
selah to overlap the lives of Adam and Noah in 
such a way that there can be no possible chance 
for a mistake in the information given from one 
to the other. And, again, they say the life of 
Methuselah is of vast importance, because it is 
a link in the very essential chain of chronology 
from Adam to Christ. 

They forget the fact that the chronology of 

Christ's earthly ancestry was no more perfect 

than that of any mortal, and is given only as a 

matter of history that we may trace his lineage 

back to the father of the human race, and first 
(70) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 71 

transgressor of heaven's law. As to the import- 
ance they attach to the life of Methuselah for 
passing knowledge from Adam to Noah, I am 
surprised that men of great learning should even 
discuss it. From the death of Adam to the birth 
of Noah spans a bridge of only one hundred and 
twenty-six years, across which walked Enos, Cai- 
nan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Lamech. Enos was 
contemporary with Adam for six hundred and 
ninety-five years and with Noah for eighty-four 
years. Cainan was with Adam six hundred and 
five years, and with Noah one hundred and sev- 
enty-nine years. Mahalaleel was with Adam five 
hundred and thirty-five years, and with Noah two 
hundred and thirty-four years. Jared was with 
Adam four hundred and seventy years, and with 
Noah three hundred and sixty-six years. And 
Lamech was with Adam fifty-six years, and with 
Noah, as his father, five hundred and ninety-five 
years. 

From this it is clearly evident that the life of 
Methuselah is not an absolute necessity for his- 
toric record from Adam to Noah. It serves only 
to show the wonderful opportunity given him to 
have interlaced his life and name like a thread of 
gold into the warp and woof of all that happened 
before the flood. But, alas for him, like many 



72 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

of those who live to-day, he just lived, and that 
was all. Disinterested, unconcerned, he lived; 
and all that could be said as a funeral sermon was 
"He died/' 

The sun sets behind the western hills, but the 
trail of light which it leaves athwart the sky 
guides many a pilgrim to his distant home. The 
trees of the forest wither and die, but in the lapse 
of ages they are dug up as coal to keep the sons 
of men cheerful and warm amid the chilly blasts 
of winter. The coral insects die, but the reefs 
they raise break the surge on the shore of a con- 
tinent, or form an island in the bosom of the ocean 
as a home for some shipwrecked mariner. But 
Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years and died, and has never been heard of since. 
Not even the Son of God, who was mindful of 
the sparrow and the ant and the lily, is recorded 
as having so much as even mentioned his name. 
He was dead, and the sum total of his life's worth 
was told when the sacred historian said, "He 
died." 

The text, then, serves to teach us that it is not 
the length of a life, but the influence it has ex- 
erted upon those with whom it has come in con- 
tact, that determines its worth in the economic 
needs of the world. Methuselah lived nine hun- 



The Blighted Life of Methiiselah. 73 

dred and sixty-nine years, and his entire life his- 
tory, with all of its achievements, is told in a 
single sentence: "And all the days of Methuse- 
lah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and 
he died." On the other hand, Jesus Christ lived 
only about thirty-three years, and with all the 
writers of all the world telling of his achieve- 
ments, not half has ever been told of the won- 
drous works of the Son of God. From the cradle 
to the grave, Christ was ever looking for, and 
grasping, opportunities to lift mankind to a high- 
er civilization, and make the world better for his 
having lived in it; while Methuselah, with a life 
of nine hundred and sixty-nine years, is not ac- 
credited by any writer of prose or poetry, fact or 
fiction, as having done, or even attempted to do, 
a single thing in the world but live and die. 

Not a single writer of the Scriptures makes any 
reference to him or mentions his name, except 
where for chronological exactness, it could not 
be avoided. (Luke and Chronicles.) Longevity 
was the theme of every sacred writer, and yet, 
not one of them mentioned Methuselah, though 
he enjoyed it to a greater extent than any other 
mortal that ever lived. He had opportunities 
which were given to no other man, but he allowed 
them all to pass, and to all time to come he was 



74 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

dead. And so also to-day there are men and wom- 
en who, living amid opportunities of every kind 
for bettering the stock of the human race, arq 
doing nothing for themselves, nothing for the up- 
lift of mankind, nothing for the glory of God. 
They are just living, and when life is over, all 
that can be said of them is that they lived and 
died. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



A Page in Alabama History. 

Think of the commanding position in the af- 
fairs of this nation Booker T. Washington, 
a former slave, has attained by grasping the op- 
portunities as they have come to him from time 
to time. 

At the meeting of the last Alabama Legislature 
it was the thought of many politicians that the 
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, of 
which he is the President, and from which no 
revenue of tax was collectable, was a menace to 
the county in which it is located. Attention was 
called to the fact that the institution owns more 
than two thousand acres of the county's land, 
for which no tax was paid. It was shown by 
logical reasoning that the rapid growth of the 
school would soon bankrupt the county by mo- 
nopolizing the land from which the county might 
obtain a revenue of tax if it were not for the laws 
which prevent the taxing of school property. The 
State ordered that an investigation be made and 

(75) 



76 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

reported, so that the Legislature might adopt 
measures to relieve the county of its embarrass- 
ment. 

The investigation was made by Mr. W. W. Har- 
alson, Public Accountant. He reported that he 
had examined the books and accounts of the in- 
stitution as directed, and made diligent inquiry 
into every department of the same. He gave a 
brief history of the rise of the institution from the 
rented shanty in which it began in 1881, with thir- 
ty pupils and one teacher, up to its mammoth pro- 
portions of to-day. He told of the various depart- 
ments of learning connected with the institution ; 
of the facilities for training boys and girls for 
honorable and industrious citizenship ; of the ex- 
actness with which every detail of finance con- 
nected with the school is kept, and declared that, 
looking at its purely business side, "The school 
is the model of perfection." 

He told of the experiments with cotton, whereby 
the institution is trying to improve the quality 
of Alabama's crops by crossing the various grades 
of cotton in the hope of increasing the length of 
the staple. He said he was favorably impressed 
with the condition and care of the grounds, the 
excellent order prevailing everywhere among the 
students, and the general air of earnestness and 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 11 

industry that seemed to pervade the entire estab- 
lishment. 

He said the institution owned two thousand 
four hundred acres of land, which it had bought 
from the county at an expense of $14,057.50, 
after the land had been returned to the county 
for delinquent taxes. His report showed that 
twenty-nine pieces of property owned by persons 
directly connected with the school had increased 
in tax valuation, by the growth of the school, from 
$4,320 to $27,786 for the present year. And thir- 
ty-eight other pieces of property owned by per- 
sons not at all connected with the school had in- 
creased in tax valuation, by proximity to this 
great and growing institution, from $1,050 to the 
amount of $16,244. He then called attention to 
the fact that the school has an endowment fund 
of $1,479,150.81; has an average attendance of 
1,500 pupils; employs 149 teachers; collects un- 
paid legacies, through the banks of the county, 
over $633,000 each year; spends $125,000 in the 
county each year ; and, besides all this, owns min- 
eral lands in the Northern part of the State to 
the amount of 25,000 acres, the value of which 
would exceed $200,000. 

The investigation showed that the Tuskegee 
Normal and Industrial Institute was not a cancer, 



78 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

gradually sapping the financial life out of the 
county, but rather the spinal cord from which 
the county receives its nerve energy of tax valua- 
tion and business and commercial activity. The 
subject of taxing school property not only died 
of its own weight, but I am told by one whose 
veracity is not doubted that many of the legisla- 
tors were heard expressing regret that Booker T. 
Washington and his wonderful institution were 
not located in their county. 

Now, tell m.e, dear reader, do you believe sucl) 
a man could escape the notice of future writers 
of this day and generation? No, my friend, the 
men and women who have greatly aided in the 
advancements of civilization and the uplift of 
mankind are never forgotten upon the pages of 
history, for they are the nucleus from which the 
history grows. Dorcas made garments and dis- 
tributed them to the poor, and the facts were told 
by the sacred writers. One v/oman gave the last 
penny she had in a church collection, and it was 
recorded. Even the woman who, rejoicing be- 
cause Christ had rid her of devils, hid under the 
table and kissed the feet of the blessed Redeemer 
until her tears of joy falling upon them made 
them so wet they were wiped away with the locks 
of her hair, will awake in the morning of the 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 79 

resurrection and find that her name is recorded 
in the Word of God. But Methuselah, lived nine 
hundred and sixty-nine years and did nothing, 
either good or bad, whereby his name might be 
mentioned after saying, ''He died/' When I think 
of the idlers and the loafers, and the indifferent 
men and women about us, and consider the op- 
portunities which they have for improving their 
own condition, and the condition of those about 
them, I am reminded of the man whose only earth- 
ly possession was a large diamond that was worth 
many thousands of dollars. On the deck of an 
ocean steamer one day, while going from America, 
he amused himself by tossing his diamond up and 
catching it as it fell. Flushed with pride at the 
attention he attracted, he tossed his diamond high- 
er and higher, until, overcome with pride at the 
applause of the crowd, he tossed his diamond up 
with all his might, and, to his dismay and un- 
doing, missed it; saw it bound over the side of 
the ship, strike the water and sink into the sea. 
The one legacy that is bequeathed to every man is 
"an opportunity ;" and, oh, the numbers who, like 
the "fool with a fortune," are tossing their diamond 
opportunities away in lustful pleasure and car- 
nal gratification ; and when they are dead, all that 
can be said of them is that they lived and died. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



Methuselah a Warning to Sinners. 

Methuselah is a warning to sinners. They see 
signs of a coming flood, and know that "We must 
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;" 
yet they reject all offers of mercy and pardon, 
and seem utterly indifferent with reference to 
their souFs eternal welfare. They know that all 
opportunities for heaven will be shut off when 
they leave these mundane shores, and the uncer- 
tainty of life makes it impossible for human 
knowledge to even approximate the hour of death, 
and yet they seem as unconcerned as though the 
story of the cross were a mythical joke. 

Our Savior, anxious to save men from the 
thraldom of sin, even when he, of his own volition, 
had become an apostate to the prince of darkness, 
laid aside his royal paraphernalia, disrobed him- 
self of all the happiness that heaven offered, came 
down to this sin-cursed earth, incarnated himself 
in a fading robe of feeble mortality, became sub- 
ject to all the ills and afflictions to which the flesh 
(80) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 81 

is heir, and, as a preacher of righteousness, be- 
came so very poor he was forced to perform a 
miracle to pay his tax as a citizen. (Matt, xvii: 
27.) No home, and but a few friends, he at one 
time exclaimed: *The foxes have holes, and the 
birds of the air have nests^ but the Son of man 
hath not where to lay his head.'' (Luke ix :58.) 

Betrayed into the hands of his enemies by one 
of his bosom friends, he was dragged about the 
streets of the city in chains, blindfolded, scourged, 
spit upon and maltreated until almost ready to 
faint from exhaustion, hunger and thirst. A 
crown of thorns was pressed down upon his head, 
causing the blood to gush from his temples and 
dye his garments red. They led him out from the 
city, forcing him to bear his own cross. Weak 
from loss of blood and nerve exhaustion, Christ 
stumbled and fell, but the heartless murderers, 
shorn of every vestige of mercy, scourged him 
until, staggering, he regained his feet and pro- 
ceeded forth "as a lamb to the slaughter." Christ 
could have delivered himself, or had legions of 
angels at his command; but he suffered himself 
to be crucified and die upon the shameful cross 
that he might satisfy the claims of justice, and 
appease the justly-kindled wrath and indignation 
of an insulted Creator. 



82 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

He was buried in a tomb, but arose again on 
the third day, thereby proving his identity as the 
Son of God. He spent forty days upon earth af- 
ter his resurrection, instructing his disciples how 
to build up his church, which, like the ark of Noah, 
is to save all who serve him of every nation, tribe 
and tongue, from the coming conflagration when 
this old world of ours shall burn as an oven. 
Having finished his work on earth, Christ ascend- 
ed into heaven and took his seat at the right hand 
of the Father, where he is still pleading for you 
and for me. Even now he stands with out- 
stretched arms, saying to every sinful soul, "To- 
day, if you hear my voice, harden not your heart; 
but come unto me, and I will give you rest." 

Christ's plans for building the church, like God^s 
plans for the ark, are very peculiar, and full of 
mystery to the unregenerated mind. He himself 
said (Matt. x:16), "Behold, I send you forth as 
sheep in the midst of wolves." "Fear not them 
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the 
soul : but rather fear him who is able to destroy 
both soul and body in hell." (Matt. x:28.) "Behold, 
the devil will cast some of you into prison, that 
ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation : 
be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life." (Rev. ii:10.) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 83 

The followers of Christ show their desire to 
obtain the crown by doing all they can to build 
up the church, and help hasten the day *'when the 
kingdoms of this world shall become the king- 
doms of our Lord and of his Christ." Like Noah, 
they preach righteousness and warn you of the 
coming flood. You, like Methuselah, stand out- 
side, and give no ear to their entreaties to you to 
come in ere it is too late. 

Reason teaches you that he who spoke worlds 
into existence, and formed out of nothing the uni- 
verse with all its myriads of systems, must be 
infinitely happy and glorious in himself. He is 
omniscient in wisdom, and His power is bounded 
only by eternity. His felicity and dignity can 
neither be enlarged nor diminished, and think for 
a moment how great must be the condescension, 
and how infinite the love and mercy of God must 
be that he should ask for reconciliation with a 
poor, wretched rebel and traitor, whom He might 
blot out of existence by the breath of His nostril. 
Hear Him who created worlds, and caused myr- 
iads of creatures to live and move by the fiat 
of his awful word, calling in tender tones and 
pleading with a poor, ignorant, wayward, de-' 
pendent sinner, to "Come now, and let us reason 
together;" saying in tones of pity, "Though your 



84 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool/' No matter how blackened your soul may 
be; no matter how foul the deeds of your past 
life; no matter how far you are alienated from 
God and the light of heaven, you may come, and 
are especially invited to come and be saved upon 
the terms of the gospel ; and yet many go on heed- 
less of God's offered mercy, like the poor, starv- 
ing, homeless wanderer who refused to accept 
alms or lodging, and died without food or shel- 
ter. 

When Alexander the Great encamped before 
a city, he used to set up a light, and all who would 
come to him while that light lasted, would be 
kindly received and given quarter; if not, then, 
after the light had gone out, no one need expect 
quarter or mercy. God sets up light after light, 
and waits year after year, and still his offers 
of mercy are rejected. You get a glimpse of the 
warning light from time to time, as those who 
are near and dear to you are swept off from the 
shores of time by the waves of death into the 
ocean of eternity; and you know from the aches 
and pains that haunt your life that it is but a 
short time when you must follow. Ever since 
Adam heard the voice of God in Eden telling him 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 85 

"Thou shalt surely die," man has been vainly 
seeking some way of escape from the grim mon- 
ster, Death. Whether he make his home in a gild- 
ed palace, the drapery and fine linen of which 
challenge for a comparison the apostle's vision 
of heaven; or whether he dwell in a tent in the 
lonely woods, where nothing save the hooting of 
the owls disturbs the lonesome silence of his soli- 
tary abode, man finds himself ever and anon face 
to face with the grim monster, Death, who follows 
him as a cat would a mouse, to devour him as 
an insufficient morsel for his hungry stomach. 
In vain have philosophers and scientists sought 
to free the inhabitants of earth from this dread 
monster, whose gluttonous appetite devours all 
that earth produces, and is still unsatisfied. King- 
doms and nations, dynasties and empires have 
been erected, and labelled "Imperishable," but 
the powerful claws of this merciless beast have 
broken them to pieces, and he has devoured them 
with relish. Constantly feasting, he is always 
famished; eating without intermission, yet starv- 
ing and poor. He ravishes the world of every 
object, animate or inanimate, without reference 
or concern as to age, size or shape, and yet this 
hoary-headed hydra is lean and bony as though 
he had starved for a hundred years. All efforts 



86 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

to shun him are as vain foolishness, and you 
know not how soon the summons will come, "Thy 
soul is required of thee." (Luke xii:20.) Like 
one who sees his boat drifting down the Niagara 
River towards the falls, but fails to pull ashore, 
you seem utterly indifferent, though drifting fur- 
ther and further away from the moorings of 
Christ, and nearing the terrible, deafening, death- 
dashing rapids of a moral, or spiritual, or an eter- 
nal cataract. Will you not heed the voice of God, 
and, grasping the oars of faith, pull for the shore 
of a hope in Christ Jesus before it is too late? 

0, that I had the voice of a trumpet, that I 
might disturb the auditory nerve of your spiritual 
ear and arouse you from the stupor into which 
you have fallen. Like a swift-sailing vessel with- 
out helm or rudder, you are tossed hither and 
thither by the mad winds and waves of thought- 
less impulses. You imagine yourself rich, great 
and powerful, healthy and happy, when, in real- 
ity, you are deceiving your own soul, and your 
incoherent babbling gives a lie to all you have to 
say concerning your wealth and influence, "For 
every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle 
upon a thousand hills" (Psa. 1:10), and "the sil- 
ver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord 
of Hosts." (Hag. ii:8.) In chains, you sing of 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 87 

freedom, and while utterly helpless, you are anx- 
ious to help reform the church and assist the true- 
born children of God, whom you imagine are in 
a state of need. 

You remind me very much of a man whom I saw 
the other day while passing the guard-house. The 
officers of the law were trying to take from the pa- 
trol wagon an insane man, whom they had picked 
up. He was dirt, ignorance and depravity per- 
sonified; and yet, to the amusement of a large 
crowd, he was gesticulating wildly with his hands, 
and declaring that he was a god, and the officers 
would all die if they dared to touch his holy body. 
With feet and hands securely bound, and utterly 
powerless in the hands of the officers, he was 
writhing and calling for all those who needed 
assistance to call upon him, and receive a bless- 
fng. As he was being borne into the guard-house 
to be locked up in a cell, he shouted, "Hear me, 
ye mortals, don't come too close, for if any of 
you touch my holy body, you will immediately drop 
dead.'' 



CHAPTER XIX. 



No Excuse for Rejecting Christ. 

Are you delaying because you think there is time 
enough? It has well been said, "Procrastination 
is the thief of time/* The proud Queen Eliza- 
beth rejected the offers of mercy, and on her 
death~bed exclaimed in the agony of her soul, **My 
kingdom for a moment of time/' In the life of 
Steven Grellet we are told that once, when Miss 
Roscoe was in the room of Tom Paine, some of 
his infidel associates came to him, and, in a loud, 
heartless manner, said, ''Tom Paine, it is said you 
are turning Christian, but we hope you will die 
as you have lived," and then went away. Turn- 
ing to Miss Roscoe, Paine said: ''You see what 
miserable comforters they are.'' Once he asked 
her if she had read any of his writings; she told 
him she had begun "The Age of Reason," but it 
made her so miserable that she flung it in the fire. 
"I wish all had done as you did," he said, "for, if 
the devil ever had any agency in any work, he 
had it in my writing that book." When going to 

(88) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 89 

carry him refreshments, she repeatedly heard him 
uttering the language, "0, Lord! Lord God!" or 
"Lord Jesus, have mercy on me." 

In the midst of life we are in death, and, since 
our life is so uncertain, and all opportunities for 
correcting mistakes are taken from us when we 
leave the walks of life, it is very necessary, my 
sinner friend, that you accept God now, and make 
him your friend, that 

"When thy summons comes to Join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

Are you laboring under an hallucination that 
you can escape the all-seeing eye of God? Lafay- 
ette, the great friend of George Washington, tells 
us that he was once shut up in a small room in 
a gloomy prison for a long time. In the door of 
his cell there was a very small hole. At that 
hole a soldier was placed day and night to watch 
him. All he could see was the soldier's eye; but 
that eye was always there. Day and night, every 
moment when he looked up, he always saw that 
eye. There was no escape, no hiding, when he 
lay down, and when he rose up, that eye was 



90 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

watching him. And so it is with the eye of God. 
It is in every cloud on the mountain ; in the secret 
chambers of every muttering thunder; observes 
every wind that bends the forest, and sees every 
ray of light that falls from the sun. Where can 
you go from his all-seeing eye? And where can 
you hide and escape His presence? David said 
(Psa. cxxxix:8-10), *'lf I ascend up into heaven, 
thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behoM, 
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn- 
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
hand shall hold me.'* At every step, and in every 
circumstance, there is the eye of God. Even in 
the central darkness of your innermost soul the 
eye of God watches and knows the thoughts of 
your heart. *'His going forth is from the ends 
of the heaven, and His circuit unto the ends of if' 
(Psa. xix:6), and he says to the children of men 
(Rev. iii:8), ''I know thy works." 

Are you delaying because you doubt the exist- 
ence of a true and living God? "The devils (Jas. 
ii:19) believed and trembled.'' The heathen be- 
lieve, and, having lost the identity of the true 
God, worship wood and stone, in the belief that 
they have found that ideal for which their spirits 
thirst. Did you ever notice the works of a watch? 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 91 

There are large wheels and small wheels all fitted 
together so as to concur in an orderly motion. 
Did you ever for a moment think that the watch 
came together by chance? Did you ever go through 
a magnificent building and believe it happened 
there by chance ? Can you think of a palace beset 
with pleasant gardens, adorned with stately ave- 
nues, furnished with well-contrived aqueducts and 
cascades, and equipped with everything for con- 
venience, and then persuade yourself to believe 
it is all a matter of chance? How, then, can you 
contemplate the world in which you live, fur- 
nished with air, light, gravity, heat and every- 
thing that is necessary for its preservation and 
security; fitted with everything conducive to the 
life, health, happiness, propagation and increase 
of all the prodigious variety of creatures with 
which the earth is stocked ; with nothing wanting, 
nothing redundant or frivolous, nothing botching 
or ill-made, but everything, even in the append- 
ages, exactly answering all its ends and occa- 
sions; and then doubt the existence of a Being 
sufficiently wise to intelligently plan and execute 
the wondrous work? 

The quince tree may have its true limbs torn 
away, and the limbs of other trees grafted in their 
stead until twelve manner of fruit may ripen there- 



92 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

upon, but the body of that tree will ever retain 
its identity ; and every shoot that sprouts upward 
from the roots will, upon examination, prove to 
be unadulterated quince trees. So also with man. 
He is a worshipful being, and, though he may have 
grafted into his mind thoughts and teachings that 
tend to allure him away from God, and give ease 
from the fear of death, by filling his mouth with 
argument, and his thoughts with delusive hope; 
yet, away down at the root of his heart's inner- 
most soul, there is a consciousness of the existence 
of a Supreme Being, and, 

'*A thousand stings within his breast. 
Deprive his soul of ease." 



CHAPTER XX. 



God's Leniency With Men. 

Methuselah shows us how patient and merciful 
God is, even with those who oppose His will. 
Henry Ward Beecher said, "The thought of the 
future punishment for the wicked which the Bible 
reveals is enough to make an earthquake of terror 
in every man's soul. I do not accept the doctrine 
of eternal punishment because I delight in it. I 
would cast in doubts, if I could, till I had filled 
hell up to the brim; I would destroy all faith in 
it; but that would do me no good. I could not 
destroy the thing. Nor does it help me to take 
the word everlasting and put it into a rack like 
an inquisitor, until I make it shriek out some 
other name. I cannot alter the stern facts." 

Methuselah was the son of Enoch, and the 
grandfather of Noah: both men of such extraor- 
dinary piety that they are described as walking 
with God; and, though he, as an individual, does 
not appear connected with any of the movements 
of his day for the uplift of mankind, he was al- 
lowed to live on. 

(93) 



94 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

Noah was a righteous man, and walked with 
God, and, notwithstanding Methuselah's moral and 
spiritual lethargy, it would have been an appal- 
ling sight for Noah, while securely housed in the 
ark, to have seen his grandfather tossing on the 
surging waves of the swelling flood. And thus, 
for all we know, God, of respect for Noah's right- 
eousness, and to remove from him any temptation 
to open the ark or endanger the safety of those 
within, stayed the liquid mountains and the water- 
filled cloudsi until the old man Methuselah was 
dead, and his grandson had buried him with the 
other antediluvian patriarchs. 

And so it is to-day. Many of those who are 
enemies of Christ are blessed, and their lives pro- 
longed from day to day, through the prayers and 
righteousness of some relative or friend who is 
walking with God. Mercy is shown to them for 
the sake of Christ, who pleads their cause before 
the throne of God. If, however, that sinner is 
not influenced to turn to God and live, and go on 
heedless of the mercies shown, heedless of the 
long life given, heedless of the many opportuni- 
ties offered, though he should be spared until the 
frosts of an hundred winters have fallen upon 
him, yet, at the last day, the mercy of Christ will 
be turned to wrath, and, when begging to be re- 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 95 

leased from the clutches of the evil one, Christ 
will turn away and laugh at his calamity,- and 
mock when his fear cometh. Instead of running 
to his rescue, He will say to the prince of dark- 
ness, ''Bind him hand and foot, and take him 
away, and cast him into outer darkness; there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth/* (Matt. 
xxii:13.) 

God demands our belief in His great and sol- 
emn warnings. He calls us to fear. He has re- 
vealed to us the way. His son is the ark, the 
door is open, and he urges every one to enter and 
be saved upon the terms of the gospel. Upon this 
your safety depends. "For there is none other 
name under heaven given among men, whereby 
we must be saved,'' (Acts iv:12.) Will you be- 
lieve and enter, or will you, like Methuselah, spend 
your life amid opportunities for heaven, and die 
without a hope in Christ Jesus the Lord? Though 
the flood was delayed for one hundred and twenty 
years, it surely came, and so will your end come; 
though now you appear able to . withstand the 
trials of years unnumbered. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The Price of the Ark. 
As I have previously said, the ark of Noah was 
a boat of wondrous size, and as ship-building 
was then in its infancy, it is not to be wondered at 
that Noah and his sons were one hundred and 
twenty years completing it. To build the ark, ac- 
cording to the plans and specifications given Noah, 
required at least five hundred thousand feet of 
beams, sills and scantlings for the framework; 
one hundred and eleven thousand feet of lumber 
for the side ; nineteen thousand nine hundred and 
sixty-five feet for the ends; four hundred and 
four thousand eight hundred feet for the top, bot- 
tom and second and third-story floors, and eighty- 
nine thousand feet to divide the first and second 
stories into twelve hundred rooms each eighteen 
feet from floor to ceiling, and ten feet square, 
with a partition ten feet high, to prevent the wild 
beasts of the forest from preying upon each other 
and thwarting the divine plan for the preservation 
of the various species. Thus Noah and his sons, 

of necessity, were compelled to procure and dress 
(96) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 97 

not less than one million, one hundred and twenty- 
four thousand seven hundred and sixty-five square 
feet of lumber for the building of that wonder- 
ful ark, which was to save representatives of all 
the life-breathing animals. The lumber alone re- 
quired for Noah's ark, if purchased to-day at a 
minimum price of $20 per thousand, would cost 
$22,495,300, besides the labor, nails, bolts and 
pitch necessary to make the ark waterproof, and 
able to ride the waves of a shoreless sea for one 
year. All this expense and time and labor and 
thought were given to save representatives of 
God's creation. 

And so also with the ark of Christ. Each per- 
son in the Godhead wrought in the work of build- 
ing an ark for the saving of man from the com- 
ing conflagration when this old world shall burn 
as an oven. *'God so loved the world, that he gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." (John iii:16.) Christ died an ignomin- 
ious death upon a shameful cross as a legal trans- 
gressor, that he might satisfy the claims of jus- 
tice and redeem man from the curse of a broken 
law. (Gal. ii:16.) And the Holy Ghost, leaving 
the kingdom of glory, has been wandering around 
the earth ever since the day of Pentecost, seeking 
timber for the ark of Christ, by establishing the 



98 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

kingdom of God in the hearts of men. He, like 
Noah, is ever preaching to you through the voice 
of conscience. He stands at the door of your 
heart even now, and, however much you try to 
break away from His beneficent influence, you 
are constantly reminded of the fact that you must 
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. 
Christ's kingdom, like the ark of Noah, is suffi- 
cient to save representatives of every kindred, 
tribe and tongue. 

In the twenty-first chapter of Revelations we 
are told that heaven was measured with a golden 
reed, and found to be twelve thousand furlongs in 
length and breadth and heighth. Twelve thou- 
sand furlongs are equal to seven millions, nine 
hundred and twenty thousand feet ; and since the 
length and breadth and heighth of the city are the 
same, we find by cubing the length, that heaven 
is a four square city containing nine hundred and 
forty-eight sextillion, nine hundred and eighty- 
eight quintillion cubic feet. Let us reserve one- 
half of this vast domain for the throne of God and 
the choir of heaven and the hundred and forty 
and four thousand white robed elders of the courts 
of glory. Then let us reserve one-half of the re- 
maining half for streets and avenues ; and the re- 
maining one-fourth part of heaven will be suffi- 
ciently large to be divided into five trillion, seven 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 99 

hundred and forty-three billion, seven hundred 
and fifty-nine million rooms, each of which would 
be nineteen feet square, and sixteen feet from 
floor to ceiling. Now let us suppose that the world 
always did and always will contain nine hun- 
dred millions of inhabitants. And let us sup- 
pose that the world will stand for a hundred 
thousand years to come. This would give an 
aggregate of twenty-seven trillion persons. 
Now let us suppose that in the universe 
there were eleven thousand, two hundred and 
thirty other worlds equal to ours in population 
and length of duration, and that all the people 
from all those worlds through all those years were 
righteous and destined to spend eternity with 
God: even then, there would be a room nineteen 
feet square, and sixteen feet from floor to ceiling 
for every one of them, and yet there would be 
room for millions more. 

He says to you, while reading this book, 
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.^' (Matt. 
xi:28.) His Holy Spirit, even now, is knock- 
ing at the door of your heart, and asking 
you to let Him come in and "teach you all things, 
and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
soever Christ has said unto you." (John, xiv: 



100 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

26.) This gives every one an opportunity to come 
to Christ and be saved. He says (Isa., lv:7) "Let 
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the 
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to 
our God, for He will abundantly pardon/' Why 
not arouse thyself, 0, thou modern Methuselah, 
and turn away from the thraldom of sin, and find 
rest in the ark Christ Jesus. 

Unless from your sins you return and repent, 
To hell, like Methuselah, you will be sent. 
Oh, turn, sinner, turn, and to Jesus now fly, 
And plead for forgiveness. Oh why will you die? 
The joys of earth pleasures and hopes are all vain; 
And naught, in the end, can they promise but pain, 
Like spectres of horror they'll glare in your eye. 
Oh, turn, while the Saviour asks, **Why will you die?" 



CHAPTER XXIL 



Methuselah a Warning to Christians, 
There are many people who boast of the long 
time they have been a member of the church, and ' 
''Remember the day and hour when God, for 
Christ's sake, spoke peace to their soul/' They 
forget that past blessings will not suffice, and that 
the getting into the kingdom of God is a result 
of "working out the soul's salvation." 

Methuselah was a member of the church of his, 
day — a righteous family — and with pride could 
boast of the fact that he had been a member of 
it for centuries ; but what profit was it to him if, 
as an individual, he did nothing to help it in the 
work of saving the world from the curse of sin? 
He lived in it, and that was all; for nowhere do 
we find his name associated with any movement 
of any kind. Nine hundred and sixty-nine years 
he was a member of the church concerning which 
the poets sing, and yet not one even so much as 
mentions his name. All the sacred writers of the 
Bible shunned his name as though it were a loath- 
some disease. No illustration, no comparison, no 

(lOl) 



102 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

reference is made to him or his longevity by any 
of the writers from Genesis to Revelation. The 
Son of God was mindful of every sparrow that 
falleth to the ground (Matt. x:29-30), and notes 
the number of hairs in every human head. He 
used the grass of the field, the flower of the gar- 
den, the various animals, insects, reptiles, moun- 
tains, stones and every phenomenon of nature to 
make plain his way of salvation ; and yet he is not 
recorded as even so much as calling Methuselah's 
name. He was dead from the lips of all the world, 
and dead to all glory yet to come. And so it will 
be with many of those whose names have been 
on the church record for years. They are too 
busy to attend any of the services ; too intelligent 
to endure the ignorance of the worshipers of 
Christ; too morally pure to become contaminated 
by associating with sinners saved by grace; too 
cultured to drink the sacrament of the Lord un- 
less some physician can vouch for the perfect 
health of all those who have tasted before the cup 
is offered them; too busily engaged with worldly 
pleasures to bow in prayer; too fearful of the 
reproach of society to seek and to save those who 
are lost ; too full of self for the kingdom of Christ. 
When Napoleon I. invaded Egypt he encoun- 
tered an army that defied all his military genius. 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 103 

They were entrenched within a mud fort. If the 
fort had been built of rock, he could have blown 
it up with powder, or shivered it with his artil- 
lery; if it had been made of wood, he could have 
fired it with rockets; but it was nothing but a 
huge mass of mud into which his iron missiles 
stuck fast, and only increased its force of resist- 
ance. So it is with many of those who belong 
to the church. They are fortified within a mud 
fort of church membership, and no missiles from 
the preacher's gospel gun can reach them, because 
they belong to the church. They take no part in 
the services, attend worship only when the occa- 
sion is a rare one; they seek to make no heart 
glad but their own; they soothe no brow; no one 
in distress do they comfort. Their whole life 
is spent for their own happiness, and, having done 
nothing, there is no need to mention their names 
af^er the funeral service is over. 



CHAPTER XXIIL 



The Triumph of Christ. 

The Christian religion is full of glory to God 
and good will to men. Unlike the religion of the 
heathen, which deifies wood and stone; or the 
religion of those who appease the anger of their 
deity by acts of violence, the Christian religion is 
heavenly in its origin; heavenly in its actions; 
heavenly in its tendency. Like the water which 
is raised from the ocean by the magnetic water- 
spout, and borne on the wings of the wind to dis- 
tant parts of the earth, escapes from the cus- 
tody of the clouds, descends upon the earth in the 
form of rain, blesses the world with its cool, re- 
freshing powers, but refuses all offers to stay, and 
will not stop to slumber until, through channels, 
it has reached its native ocean; so the Christian 
religion, emanating from Christ, rests not in the 
bosom of those who possess it, until with them, 
it is safe in the ocean of Christ's eternal love. 
Thus the man or woman who has the Christian 

religion finds himself drawn closer and closer to 
(104) 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 105 

Christ, until, overshadowed by the transcendant 
beauty of his personality, he shouts with the Apos- 
tle, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, because He 
lives in my soul the hope of eternal glory." 

The Christian religion makes its possessor a 
blessing to every sphere in which he moves, for 
its whole character is summed up in the love of 
God and the love of man. That is all; and the 
sorrowing and the suffering that the Christians 
bear cause rejoicing in the heart, because of the 
great love that possesses them and pales into in- 
significance any affliction borne for the object of 
their affections. It was this that caused Noah 
and his sons to work away at the ark amid the 
jeering criticisms and unbelief of a doomed world. 
It caused Daniel to count death in a den of lions 
nothing, and the three Hebrew children to scorn 
the heat of a blazing furnace. It has inspired 
thousands of its possessors to v/alk cheerfully into 
the throes of a violent death, and caused Christ, 
the Christ of every man or woman who will be 
saved, to allow himself to be crucified at the hand 
of a merciless mob, that man, whom He loved, 
might be saved. 

It has translated the Bible into every known 
tongue, and pressed civilization into the lands be- 
yond. It has changed the babbling songs of the 



106 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

heathen into notes of praise, and transformed the 
wigwams into houses and palaces, around the sa- 
cred altar of which truth loves to dwell. Great 
buildings for scientific research it has built over 
the decayed ruins of superstition and falsehood; 
and the church — ^the home of wisdom — it has 
placed on every hillside, valley and plain. 

Mark Anthony drove two lions hitched to his 
chariot through the streets of Rome ; Jesus spoke, 
and the winds and the waves were guided by the 
power of his word. Alexander stood on the shore 
of the Mediterranean Sea when he had drenched 
the world in blood, and wept because there were 
no more worlds for him to conquer; the Son of 
God wept over a lost and ruined world, and shed 
his own precious blood that we might have a right 
to the tree of life. Achilles chased Hector around 
the walls of Troy three times, and slew him with 
his sword; the Son of God chased Death three 
days through the voiceless silence of the dream- 
less tomb, and, forcing him into open combat, 
foiled his power, wrenched from him his sting, 
bound him to his chariot wheel, and liberated us 
from the throes of that terrible enemy. Xerxes 
led a million well dressed soldiers to battle; Je- 
sus Christ led a hundred and forty and four thou- 
sand elders, and an innumerable white-robed 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 107 

throng from the domain of sin into the kingdom 
of God. When Titus overthrew Jerusalem and 
laid waste the land of Cainan, the Romans hon- 
ored his achievements by the erection of a tri- 
umphal arch to commemorate his conquest. The 
obelisks of Egypt remind us of the reign of the 
ancient Pharaohs, and a sarcophagus of Egyptian 
marble was used by the French to emphasize their 
appreciation of the achievem^ents of their illus- 
trious Napoleon. In every city and town, monu- 
ments and statues are erected in honor of the il- 
lustrious sons of earth, whose conquest and vic- 
tory were in their lifetime, nor lasted longer than 
a few years after their decease. The conquest 
of Jesus, on the other hand, was endless in dura- 
tion, and his victory is from everlasting to ever- 
lasting. His triumph still goes on, and is fast 
approaching that fullness when "the kingdoms of 
this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of His Christ." 

When cities shall have passed away, and we 
are able only in imagination to walk their crowded 
streets and admire their grandeur; when civiliza- 
tion, like a weary traveler along a dusty road, 
shall confess it can go no further, and lie down 
to rest neath the shade of the millenial dawn; 
when the kingdoms of this world shall have been 



108 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

decomposed into the smelting caldron of omnipo- 
tence, and moulded into one great kingdom for 
Christ; yea, when human achievements shall have 
crumbled neath the iron-clad hoofs of Time, and 
Time itself, with all its possibilities, shall have 
been sunk in the shoreless sea of eternity; even 
then, as we sit by the crystal stream, along the 
banks of which millions of the redeemed host are 
chanting their song, if we listen we can hear in 
ever-rippling wave and rustling leaf praises to 
Him whose triumph has just begun. 

As in the days of Methuselah, the religious sons 
of God have married the worldly daughters of Am- 
bition and Public Opinion ; and of them have begat 
children called Honor, Fame, Wealth, Titles, De- 
grees, Worldliness and a host of others, who stalk 
through the land with giant strength, and gain- 
say the faithful few, who, like Noah, are toiling 
daily to build up the Church of Christ. Are you 
like the sons of Noah helping to raise the weighty 
timber of the Word of God? Are you cutting tim-i 
ber for the ark from the forests of sin? Are you 
helping in the completion of the ark for the sal- 
vation of man? The Church of Christ, like the 
ark of Noah, is built without rudder, prow or sail ; 
and, when launched, will take no course, trade at 
no shore, make no trip, but just float over the 
waters of eternity forever and forever. 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 109 

You say you belong to the church, but are you 
sure that you are one of those who shall have pass- 
age in the ark? You laudate the nobility of earth, 
and keep festive days to commemorate the birth 
and death of those who marshaled hosts on the 
battle-fields, and caused thousands of precious 
lives to be lost, that they might achieve a vic- 
tory; where is your monument erected in honor 
of the leader of God's host? He never lost a bat- 
tle; conquered all the combined forces and allies 
of death, hell and the grave. 

You shout the praises of the political parasites 
of your party, whose only aim is to feast upon the 
appetizing morsel of an office fee. Have you can- 
vassed your district for Him who liberated the 
great republic of this world from its debt, paying 
the price thereof with His own blood? 

You say you have been converted, and that 
Christ is sovereign. Where is the emblem of 
His power? What statue have you raised in honor 
of His noble deeds. How many have you, person- 
ally, influenced to serve him? That a flood is 
coming, you know, both from your guidebook and 
from scientific research. How many have you 
tried to influence to enter the ark Christ Jesus 
and be saved? Like Methuselah, you have a great 
deal of time, and opportunities without number. 



110 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

What are you doing with them? You say you are 
on your way to glory, while those with whom 
you walk, confess and their works prove, that 
they have no hope in Christ. *'How can two walk 
together except they be agreed?'' (Amos iii:3.) 
Can you walk and talk and live the life of a sin- 
ner, and yet be a joint heir with the spotless 
Lamb of God who knows no sin, and in whose 
mouth no guile is found? It has been well said, 
"Show me your associates, and I will tell you who 
you are; tell me the company you keep, and I 
will write your history/' 

If then, you have Christ, put on the hope of 
eternal glory; if you have been washed in His 
precious blood, and made a joint heir with Him 
in His Father's kingdom ; if you, like Noah, would 
enter the ark of his glory when the world shall 
be on fire, then you must remember that it is your 
abounding duty to preach Christ and Him cruci- 
fied, to every one with whom you come in contact. 
For, while we do not know the day nor the hour 
of the conflagration, yet we know it will surely 
come ; and, though we cannot prove it as a logical 
syllogism, our faith gathered from the truthful- 
ness of all else that Christ has said makes us 
declare this as a fact also. 

The book of all human possibilities will then 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. Ill 

be closed; the Son of God will then resign His 
office as mediator between God and man. Mercy 
will intercede for man no longer. The heat of the 
sun will have been exhausted ; and, being able no 
longer to influence the solar system with its light 
and heat, the forces of gravity will be lost ; equi- 
librium of the entire universe will be destroyed, 
and excitement will reign supreme. Amid the 
mighty tumult of convulsed worlds, a company 
of angels will fly through the heavens. Four of 
them will light on the four corners of the earth. 
(Rev. vii:l) and hold the winds that they may 
not blow. Another, lighting on the earth, will 
offer a sacrifice of incense, the smoke from which, 
mingling with the prayers of the saints, will reach 
up to heaven as a sweet-smelling odor for the 
King of Kings. Another shall sound his trumpet, 
and cause hail of fire, mingled with blood, to fall 
upon the earth. Another shall sound his trumpet, 
and every volcano shall belch forth a stream of 
fire and tumble into the sea. Another shall sound 
his trumpet, and a blazing meteor shall strike the 
earth, and cause the waters to taste like worm- 
wood. Another shall sound his trumpet, and a 
third part of the sun, moon and stars shall be 
destroyed. Another shall sound his trumpet, and 
a star shall fall against the earth with such tre- 



112 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

mendous force a flame shall burst upon the earth 
from the bottomless pit, teeming with locusts and 
scorpions of wondrous size. Another shall sound 
his trumpet, and the four imprisoned angels shall 
be loosed to wreak vengeance upon the already 
distressed inhabitants of terra firm^. Another 
will be flying through the heavens crying, *'Woe ! 
Woe!" to the lost sinners; while a strong angel, 
clothed with the cloud, and a rainbow crown, will 
place his right foot upon the ocean and the left 
foot upon the land, and swear by Him that liveth 
that time shall be no more. Then, away above the 
din and wails of the lost host, will be heard 
the triumphant strains from countless millions 
of the redeemed, who, rising from their graves, 
shall go in with the unexpired Christians who 
have not tasted death, and, mingling the sweet 
symphonies of their thousand-stringed harps with 
the melody of their voices, they will rend the 
heavenly atmosphere with jubilation and praises 
of a new-made song of redemption's story; and 
all those who have done nothing to bring them- 
selves into favor with Christ will be left to await 
for the sounding of the last trumpet, and their 
names shall be called "Methuselah," which is to 
say, "They died and were sent out from the pres- 
ence of God and of the Lamb." 



The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 113 

Conclusion, 
I have written what, in my mind, seems to be 
the meaning of the word ''Methuselah," and the 
lesson it teaches both to saints and sinners. I 
have not allowed myself to use other than the 
Word of God as a proof of the position which I 
have taken, and I hope you have read this book 
with your Bible in hand. I have tried to write 
in such a way that all who read these pages will 
be led to search the Scriptures. If I have done 
nothing m.ore than this, I am abundantly paid 
for my pains, for I believe every traveler to the 
bar of God, while on earth, must be an active 
Christian, or a Methuselah to die and be sent out 
from the presence of God into the outer darkness 
prepared for the devil and his angels. And, al- 
though to be a member of a righteous family is 
an advantage, yet it will not profit us an3rthing 
unless there is intrinsic merit in our own works. 

The children of men, like an army of soldiers, 

Who, leaving their homes, have gone forth to the fra:,^ 
Are rushing along on the field of life's battle, 

Not knowing when death all their earth hopes shall slay. 
*Twas Adam who brought death, and millions have fought 
death 

With science and art, whom as friends they did call; 
But all of earth's treasures from death can't relieve them. 

For Death is a monster, and he conquers all. 
But he who on Jesus' breast is reposing. 

And faithfully trying to keep God's command, 
Shall triumph, though death in this life battle slay him, 

And gain as a victor's palm heaven's fair land. 



114 The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 

Let us then, my brother, like Enoch and Noah, 

Live only for Jesus while earth's way we trod; 
That all who may see us, and all who may hear us. 

Will know hy our lifers work, we're walking with God. 
Then, shouting and singing, we'll fight in life's battle, 

And scorn the proud boasting of death and the grave; 
We'll rush to life's battle, and when death shall strike us, 

Vv^e'll sliout hoLie to Jesus, who's mighty to save. 



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